


Things Locked Away

by intothecest



Series: Paired Lockes, Paired Keys [1]
Category: Locke & Key (TV)
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Brother/Sister Incest, Denial of Feelings, F/M, Ghosts, Lockecest, Locked In, New Keys, POV Alternating, References to Lovecraft, Sharing a Bed, Sibling Incest, Siblings, Slow Build, Unresolved Tension, Wakes & Funerals, trapped together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:21:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 34,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23516851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intothecest/pseuds/intothecest
Summary: The whispers lead Kinsey and Tyler to a body, and the keys it holds will lead the two to a monster, an impossible room, and the revelation of things long kept secret.
Relationships: Kinsey Locke & Tyler Locke, Kinsey Locke/Tyler Locke
Series: Paired Lockes, Paired Keys [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2072589
Comments: 25
Kudos: 36





	1. The Monster

The whispering led Kinsey and her brother Tyler to a body. 

It had always been hard for her to resist the whispers... once they learned about the magic keys of Keyhouse, despite the potential danger some of them held, the thrill of discovery outweighed everything else. It seemed like Tyler was the same way.

But the last new key they discovered was before Dodge's final assault, before they threw her back through the Omega Door. In the time since, Kinsey had started to suspect that the depressing truth was that there were no new keys to be found... except the ones that Dodge had stolen. The mysterious supernatural force that had menanced them for months might be finally gone, but she took the mystery of where she hid her keys with her. Indeed, when she and Tyler heard the whispers, that was the first thought that went through her mind, not that they'd found something new, but that they finally found her hiding place. 

They were at the shed in the woods when it happened. The two of them were working together, carefully manuevering a large tree branch to get it out of the car without it scraping against anything except the old blanket they put over the back seat. Tyler might be big and strong but Kinsey was determined not to just let him do the work, and she was right in there pushing out and guiding while he pulled. They should have broken it up more, but they wanted it done and cut corners. Now she was regretting that decision... getting it out seemed tougher than getting it in, and, as her muscles strained and her irritation was building, she thought out loud. "Do you think Mom was like, exploiting Rufus?"

"What?" Tyler stopped moving at the question.

Here she did let him hold most of the weight the branch, without letting go. "I'm just saying, Rufus used to do all this work. Even with the company Mom hired to replace him, she still needs us to help get it all done."

"I don't know, I get the impression Rufus went above any beyond."

They started moving again, and finally they pushed it the right way so the branch cleared the backseat and car door. Kinsey slid back out and on her way grabbed one of the smaller branches, one that she could easily handle herself. "Just because someone's willing doesn't mean you're not exploiting them. It might even make it easier."

"I don't think Mom was exploiting Rufus," Tyler decided, after only a little bit of thought. "At least not deliberately. I just don't think she ever really knew how much he did to keep this place looking nice."

He dropped his branch on the ground near the equipment shed, and she followed suit with her smaller branch. "Lucky she's got us to exploit instead." Ever since Rufus left, their Mom decided that everyone had to pitch in and help with stuff the groundskeeping company didn't bother with, or wouldn't start on until their next weekly visit, like picking up the unsightly tree branches that shook loose after last night's storm. And while Mom and Bode did help too, it always seemed like she left more of the heavy jobs to her and Tyler... not that she really minded.

As the moved back to the car, Tyler pulled out another branch, smaller, easier to manage, though still on the heavy side. "Look, I've got this, Kinz. Go back the house if you want. I can handle the rest of this on my own."

"What?" Her mouth opened and closed, realizing what she said, that it just sounded like complaints. Which she supposed they were, but it was just the kind you make because you have somebody to commiserate with. "No, I... I didn't mean it like _that_. I wasn't trying to get out of it, I was just... making conversation."

"Sure." He didn't sound entirely convinced of that. At the same time, he wasn't peeved about it. "But from here it doesn't really need two people. It's just dragging things out to the woodchipper." They had already taken out the biggest branches, the rest were easily manageable with one person. "Besides, you've got that date with Gabe tonight. Don't you want to go and get ready?" 

Her stomach clenched just a tiny bit. "I mean it's not really a _date_ ," she clarified. "We're just sort of... hanging out."

"But you're dating him, and you're going out, so... it counts as a date." 

Putting it like that it was hard to argue, but at the same time, Kinsey didn't _like_ him putting it like that, or taking on extra work for the sake of her romantic life. All she could do was shrug and redirect. "I guess. But what about you and Jackie?" She couldn't help dragging her voice out, and wasn't entirely sure if she was teasing him for having a girlfriend or subtly mocking her without saying anything. It was weird how often those feelngs mixed. "Aren't _you_ guys going on a date later too?"

"I don't really need time to get ready," he said. No mockery in his voice about girls needing more time than boys, just unthinking acceptance of the fact that he could be presentable with a quick shower and a change of clothes. _He might not even need a shower,_ she thought. Tyler always smelled good, and sometimes he even smelled _better_ when he was a little sweaty, like after one of his hockey games. It was so unfair. Gabe had a weird, offputting odor whenever he sweat too much. It was one of the reasons they'd never done more than make out, and were stuck in a weird holding pattern, one he seemed to be fine with but was starting to make her think she should have chosen Scot, or maybe someone else. She looked at Tyler, now holding his one tree branch over his shoulder like some caveman's club, and her gaze must have shaken something loose. "Anyway, I might not even need any time at all, I might cancel."

"Ooh, trouble in paradise?" She wanted Tyler to be happy... and she liked Jackie, even, but at the same time, the thought of there being a problem was _exciting_ somehow. Maybe it was just a need for some kind of drama that she could focus on.

"No, nothing like that. Jackie's great." She looked at him, waiting, until he turned, fumbled for the keys to the woodshed with his free hand. "She _is_. I'm just... I don't know, our plans weren't really firm, and... I don't know, maybe I might just feel more like staying in, playing games."

_Playing games, all right._ Tyler was doing that thing, where he pulls away for a while because things were starting to get too real. She didn't think her brother meant to do it, just moods struck him or he suddenly wasn't sure what he wanted and he got distant and broody.

Of course, that would probably just make him sexier. To Jackie. "No, you should go," she said after a moment. "Trust me. Even if the plans aren't firm to you, they probably are to her. Don't just blow her off." There, she could be helpful... Jackie would probably appreciate her intervention. Of course, the advice did carry its own risks... in Tyler's broodier moods sometimes he said things, lashed out in hurtful ways, like the time he told Kinsey she was on her own with the keys. Even if it hurt, she knew it was temporary... but there was always the possibility that he might say something to Jackie that would screw things up with her permanently... but if so, well, that was on him. "If you guys are serious, you need to make an effort," she emphasized. After they lugged their current branches to the pile, she couldn't help asking. " _Are_ you guys serious?"

She thought he was going to ignore the question, but finally he shrugged. "I don't know. I guess. I mean I really like her..." The line trailed off, like there was a _but_ coming, but it never came. 

Kinsey swallowed the disappointed lump in her throat and nodded. "So you should go. With both of us, we'll get this done faster anyway." They went back to the car for another branch. "Besides," she said, and stopped mid-phrase. She was going to say she liked working with him, the chance to just hang out together, but it seemed too sappy, and her gaze went out to the trees. This deep they couldn't really see signs of human habitation other than the equipment shed, which looked more like a cabin in some deserted woods, and that gave her another option to finish her thought. "I'm not leaving you alone out in the woods. That's like right where one of the Savini Squad movies would start. And who knows, my Fear might be lurking around here somewhere." It had been a while since they'd seen the physical manifestation of emotion she'd once dragged out of her mind with the magic of the Head Key, but it was talented at lying low and doing nothing until you'd forgotten about it. Maybe that was a characteristic of fear. So it had never completely left her mind... nor had the knowledge that, the first time they saw her Fear, inside her head, it attacked Tyler. Of course there were reasons for that... _stupid_ reasons, but reasons. She wasn't scared, exactly, of it happening again, but she was concerned. The guilt she constantly felt at having released that onto the world would be nothing compared to what she'd feel if it hurt someone she cared about. If it came for her brothers, she'd be ready to beat her Fear to death this time. "Come on, let's just get this done." She grabbed one of the larger remaining branches, a size just comfortable enough to use as a club of her own.

No Fear came, and as they dropped these branches in the pile, Tyler dusted his hands free of tiny pieces of bark and said, "Hey, Kinsey... Serious Question?" 

_Serious Question_ , in their family, usually signalled a rather dumb question they were supposed to _take_ seriously, like "what time period would you live in if you could travel back in time?" The 70s or 80s, Kinsey had chosen when _that_ question was asked, it just seemed so innocent and optimistic in the old movies she and Tyler sometimes stumbled upon on Netflix and watched together, where it seemed like no teen problem couldn't be helped by going to the mall or a dance club. Of course, sometimes _Serious Question_ meant the other person were going to ask a legitimate serious question, about real feelings and stuff, so she prepared herself for anything while trying to keep her voice light. "Yeah?"

The long pause (or at least, what _felt_ like a long pause) before he said anything suggested it was going to be one of the latter, but then he tilted his head and asked, "Do you hear that?"

The moment before he asked, she did. The whispers. Tyler's eyes seemed to light up, and she felt an excited smile forming on her own face. "Is that...?" she asked, despite knowing... it could be nothing else.

"Where's it coming from?" he asked, and stepped around the shed... it didn't seem to be coming from the building. Sometimes these sounds carried startlingly far, like the time they heard one in the cemetery from inside the house. 

Kinsey turned her head a few different directions, trying to get a sense of which direction was loudest. "This way," she said, and without thinking, grabbed Tyler's warm hand, pulling him along, deeper into the woods. 

He didn't let go, just let himself be dragged along, like they were going on an adventure together, and she really liked the idea of that, although eventually she realized it was going to get awkward and let go, dropped into place beside him as they both tried to follow the sound. "It's gotta be the Anywhere Key, right? Dodge must have hid it out here somewhere." 

"Maybe." It was probably the most exciting of the missing keys, the ability to go anywhere with a door you knew, instantly. Imagining the wonderful places she and Tyler could go, the fun they could have, made Kinsey want to start running, but kept her pace so they wouldn't lose track of each other.

It seemed like they were walking for minutes, but finally, they were at a small barren stretch of ground between two shallow hills which formed a natural path, although last night's rains left it muddy. The sound seemed to be strongest around a huge fallen tree trunk, old and rotted and probably colonized by insects, and, the way it was up against the slope, formed a natural trap for fallen leaves from trees above. 

"I guess that would make a good hiding place," Tyler said. Kinsey nodded, and dug in, letting her lack of fear fill in just in case Tyler was feeling some. She still felt apprehension but it felt good to be able to dive in, protect him like he'd often done for her. 

Another part of what some might call fear that was still fully intact despite what she removed from her head, was the startle reflex. That instinct came into full gear when she cleared away old, rotted leaves beside the stump, and then mud, and then hit something clothlike, and searching around that she stumbled upon something hard, but not metal, not whispering... she sucked in a breath as she realized it was bone, and not just one, a whole corpse full.

She stood up, quickly, and rushed into Tyler's arms, feeling safe as they wrapped around her, and then for a few seconds more after she realized there was nothing to be afraid of, it was a skeleton, whoever it was, was long dead, incapable of hurting them. "It's okay," Tyler said, rubbing her back. "It's okay. I'm here." 

Pulling away after one more moment, she pushed him slightly, mostly because she was embarrassed at her reaction, then turned once more, bent down to examine the skeleton with no fear. "I'm fine. It just startled me. I wasn't expecting it. You think this is someone Dodge killed?"

"Looks pretty old. It's just bones now."

That wasn't fully an answer... Dodge had been active, in some form or another, since their Dad was young enough to use the keys. Dodge could have killed this person then, and now, remembering, used it as a hiding place.

That thought reminded her of what they came here for, and she felt through the tattered clothes. "That's still a dead body, Kinsey," Tyler said. "Don't you think we should... like, report it?"

"We're the Keepers of the Keys, remember? We can't risk someone else having them, finding out what they do. We'll report it after." The clothes, she quickly discovered, were a tattered, stained t-shirt, and jeans, also covered with what she could only assume was dried blood. She ignored it, and kept searching, and first found a wallet in one back pocket of the jeans, but tossed it aside, for now, to check the front pockets, and there, inside the right front pocket of the jeans, were two small keys. She held them up, both to show Tyler and see them in better light. "Look! Two!"

"Neither of them are the Anywhere Key," he pointed out.

"No. No, these are new!" She could feel herself smiling. "Let's find out what they do!" 

He looked back at her, then down to the body, as though saying, _What about him?_ , although he didn't have to actually say it. 

"He's been here for, like, years." It occurred to her that Rufus probably walked right by here about a thousand times, but because he couldn't hear the keys, he didn't know what was lying just under the surface. "He can wait another day. We'll tell Mom or call in a tip or something later." She grabbed the wallet as an afterthought as she pushed herself to her feet, then tossed one of the two keys in her brother's direction, put the wallet in her pocket. Since the keys, she'd made a special effort to wear clothes with real pockets, just in case she needed to stash a key in one. In this case, it made a handy place to hold a dead man's wallet, because she wanted to hold onto the key tightly until she uncovered its secret. "Come on, there are probably doors in the shed."

Discovering the specific magic of any individual key was always tricky. Sometimes keys obviously fit in a specific place, a remembered lock with the same symbol somewhere in the house. Other keys worked on normal doors or made their own keyholes in heads or mirrors or other common objects. A few worked with specific items crafted for that purpose. So, they spent a few minutes at the wooden building nearest the car frantically trying various things, whatever ideas came to mind. 

First, Kinsey had done the obvious, tried the large double doors that allowed them access to the garage full of tools, lawn mowers, the wood chipper, and other assorted groundskeeping tools. Her key fit, but didn't turn, and neither did Tyler's, so they went inside to try other things. "This one seems to fit in both of these locks," Kinsey reported from one of the interior doors that led to the small groundskeeper shack attached to the garage, little more than a dormroom-sized nook that might have once held a small bed for a servant, but, today, was filled with extra tools, along with a seat and table that Rufus could sit at and read or play with his action figures or eat his lunch, outside of the cold and with a little more comfort than the garage itself. It had another door, leading to the outside, but since they were already inside the garage, she tried this side first. "But it doesn't seem to do anything either. It won't turn."

While she was trying the second door, Tyler was looking around the garage, moving things, trying ideas he wouldn't explain to her, at least, until he finally did. "Well, this one doesn't seem to fit anywhere in the wood chipper," he reported with some disappointment.

She squinted and asked, "What did you think it was going to do?"

"I don't know, turn into a wood chipper transformer or mech or something maybe?" He came back into view from around the device, a light smirk on his face. "Hey, I'm trying. My key's not giving me a lot to go on. It's just got like half of some kind of mechanical sun design on it and I don't know what to make of it."

That rang a bell and she looked again at hers. "Come here, let's look at them together."

Soon, he was at her side, and she held hers in her open palm. He put his hand next to hers, the same way. She hadn't noticed at first, both because she was caught up in the excitement and because different sides were facing up, but the keys were almost identical, with semi-circular handles with a raised half-wheel at the base. Arrange it so their teeth kiss, and the designs interlocked, the mechanical sun looked now like a wheel with eight spokes expending past the rim, and, at its center, what looked like the the hands of a clock. On the other side, though, the shared design seemed to be a faceless abstract figure (half on each key) pushing against a sun on one key, and a moon on the other. "They're a pair..."

She looked at him. "So, maybe they're meant to be used together?" Turning back to the door, she put both keys together, so they made a full circle, and tried to insert them again. Both slid smoothly into the keyhole that only fit one before, and she turned them as one, heard a click. "There we go, we're in."

"In _where_?" Tyler asked. "What does it do?"

"One way to find out." She pulled the door open, and saw what she would have described as _impossible_... if the word hadn't been drastically redefined since moving to Keyhouse. On the other side of the door was a room far bigger and more livable than the groundskeeper shack they should have normally seen, comfortably able to hold several people, maybe even a group get-together. It was even set up like that was the purpose... in the few seconds she scanned the room she could see a large ping-pong table on one side, a smaller table with chairs, several storage cabinets around the walls, a bookshelf, even an old beanbag chair, all of which suggested a space designed for low-key relaxation. There was also a raggedy couch with a purple comfortor laid over it like somebody sometimes used it to sleep. A wood and glass coffee table sat in front of it, too far away to use comfortably. But with the ornate wood panelling and chandelier in the ceiling providing gentle illumination, it also resembled a room right from Keyhouse itself... although she was certain it wasn't any actual room they'd encountered.

Still, despite the large size the room seemed cozy, very comfortable. That is, except for one thing that she only noticed a moment before she was going to step in, the realization that the room also contained a monster.

It was hidden, at first, behind the table, and completely unmoving, but a second after the door opened, it rose, snarling, man-shaped, in a white dress shirt with rolled up sleeves and grubby green slacks in a camouflage pattern, but otherwise looked more like a beast than a man, with a misshapen face, mottled-brown face bearing a pronounced brow and jaw, long sharp teeth that protruded past the lips like tusks, and incredibly long and hairy arms with huge fists. Those fists ended in sharp, blood-stained claws, and it was those that caught Kinsey's attention first... those and the beast's deep red eyes. 

The beast broke into a charge when their eyes met, right in their direction, with a deep, animalistic roar. "Oh, shit..." Kinsey said, feeling that startle instinct take her over again, and she tried to push the door shut, pulling at the keys with her other hand. Just before the door closed, with overwhelming force it slammed back open, leaving her knocked on the ground, clutching the keys tightly in her hand. When she looked back up, she saw the beast advancing on Tyler, who had also been pushed back by the door opening but still on his feet and still in sight of the creature. With an inarticulate howl, it lunged at him, grabbed him with both of its clawed fists and lifted him off the ground, pushing him into the wall.

Kinsey heard her brother groan in pain and instantly got into action. "Hey, get off him!" Practically leaping at the beast, she struck it with the only weapon in hand, the keys themself, jabbing the creature in the neck, drawing its attention but no blood. Tyler dropped to the ground, and Kinsey backed up as the monster huffed and turned in her direction. It charged at her, but she was expecting it this time, backing up so that she could dodge to the side at the last moment and let its momentum carry it past her. It tripped on the lawn mower and hit its head on a ladder, knocking both to the ground in front of the open double doors.

Taking advantage of the creature's disorientation, she rushed to Tyler's side, helping him to his feet, and then when she looked back, the creature was looking back at them, ready to charge again. To get to the car they'd have to go through the double doors, risk dashing past the monster, so she yanked her brother through the one exit that didn't have anything obviously dangerous, together crossing through the magical door. The beast's howls of inarticulate rage ceased the moment the two closed the door behind them. They continued to brace the door with their own backs, waiting for an inevitable charge, but as they did the only sound they could hear were their own beating hearts and the two of them breathing heavily.


	2. Prisoners

"What the hell is that thing?" Tyler asked after a few seconds. He still stood with his back to the door, legs forward so he could throw all his weight against it. That weight on the door could be the only thing stopping that thing from hurting Kinsey.

"I think..." his sister, beside him, also adding her own strength to the door, took a breath, calming far more quickly than he did. "I think it's like my Fear."

He felt a little hysterical giggle coming out of him, although by the time it escaped he'd squelched it down to a smirk, pretending at the confidence he knew she actually felt. "If that's your Fear, it got a serious power-up... and gotten a lot uglier." Not that he found his sister's Fear attractive on any level, just... more than that.

"No, not actually _my_ Fear, but something like it. Something from somebody's head. Rage, maybe."

"So, what... these are remote-access Head Keys or something?" His eyes darted around the room, trying to see if he could identify who's Head they might be in, but nothing seemed to point to anyone in particular. "Who were you thinking of when you opened the door?" he asked. It seemed like that would be a reasonable way it would work, like the Anywhere Key where you had to picture the door you wanted to go to. But who would Kinsey picture... "Gabe?" If Gabe had that kind of rage-monster inside of him, well, they were going to have to have a long talk that might end with the smarmy teenager never seeing Kinsey again.

"No!" Though she sounded so indignant at the idea he wasn't sure if she was being honest or just didn't want to admit she'd been caught out. "I wasn't thinking of anybody." After a few seconds of silence, she added, "I don't hear anything. Do you think it's still out there?"

Tyler put his ear right up against the door, but he couldn't hear anything either, except a faint roar... not the creature's roar, this was low and constant, like the kind of noise you hear when you hold a seashell up to your ear. "I don't know."

She took a step back. "If it's like my Fear, it's not that smart, or focused. Maybe it's like... out of sight, out of mind?"

"We should be ready to lock it just to be sure. You've got the key, right?" Kinsey nodded, and while he held the door, drew close again, keys in hand. "There's no hole on this side," she revealed. "It just won't go in." She tried the other door that Tyler only just now noticed, a few feet to the side of the one he was holding. That door seemed to be locked, for the handle didn't turn when Kinsey turned it, and then she tapped the key just underneath to no avail. "This one either." 

_Of course_ , Tyler thought with a bitter exhale. At the same time, the monster probably would have tried to break through by now, so maybe the thing _had_ lost interest. He held his position on the door, but more loosely, not throwing all his weight against it but just being ready in case he suddenly needed to. "Okay, we need to figure out what to do." Maybe that second door could provide an exit, if he could be comfortable letting this one go and figure out how to open it. 

"Your shirt," Kinsey said, glancing at his chest. "It looks torn. Are you okay?" 

He looked down at himself quickly, but what little pain he felt didn't come from there... his back and butt might be bruised but he didn't feel like he was cut. "I'm fine," he reported. "It must have happened when the thing grabbed my shirt. Listen, I'm going to open the door and check to see if it's still out there. See if you can find some kind of weapon."

Kinsey took a step back and twirled slowly, eyes casting about the room. Tyler also scanned the room, but still holding the door. It looked a lot like a room in their new home, Keyhouse, but like if someone had set up a large rec room decades ago and sealed it up since then. There were places to sit, shelves and cupboards, games like a dart board on the wall and a ping-pong table. The space was also big enough that it almost could have been a contained basement apartment, if not for the lack of kitchen and bed... and he suspected the couch folded out, judging by how far away the coffee table was situated. Still, despite the age and size, the room looked homey... not the kind of place he'd expect a monster to be lurking. Which was good, because when Kinsey dragged him there his first worry was that there might be more than one. 

His sister selected the first thing that she thought might be useful as a weapon, which turned out to be one of the chairs at the table, a metal one that she folded up flat and held up with both hands. "What are you, a pro wrestler now?"

"Do you see any better options?" He shrugged. "Okay, you open the door, I'll hit it if it comes through."

He took a breath, then turned, grabbed the handle, and pulled, only realizing at that moment that Kinsey had pulled the door open from the other side so he _should_ have to push. Yet the door opened that way anyway, and he chalked it up to magic. If magic keys could make any lock fit them surely they could alter the way the doors swung. 

But he wouldn't let Kinsey take the risk, even if she wasn't afraid, so he stepped in the path of the opening door to look out.

The monster was still there. Staring at the door. Completely still... for a second, at least, and then it's legs started to bend into a crouch and he heard a snarl beginning, and Tyler slammed the door shut, put his back to guarding it again. "Yeah, it's still out there." 

"What's it doing?" Kinsey still held the chair aloft. 

"Just... watching, it looks like. Maybe it doesn't want to come in."

"Or _can't_ , without the keys," his sister suggested. "If you shut the door, there, it's a normal door, right?"

It made sense. Now he felt foolish, but wasn't going to show it. "Maybe."

"So you _probably_ don't have to go all Hodor on it on this side."

He allowed himself a smile. "Maybe not. But I'd still feel a little better if we wedged the chair up into the handle."

She made a thoughtful face, then nodded, brought the chair over, and the two of them did their best to set the chair in the way they'd seen in movies where it prevented someone from breaking through. When they were done, it didn't look sturdy, but it was enough to relax Tyler enough to step away, drop his arms.

Kinsey, on the other hand, suddenly became the opposite of relaxed, she had a trace of panic in her voice. "Oh my god, Tyler... you _are_ bleeding!"

"What?" he asked, and looked down again at his grey crew-necked T-shirt. It was easy to notice that the band logo on it was torn, but you could almost miss the streaks of red as part of the design unless you looked carefully. Now that Kinsey pointed it out, he saw them too, and it definitely did look like blood. Yet... "I'm fine, Kins."

"Take off your shirt," his sister demanded.

"I told you, I'm fine."

"Your shirt is ripped and you're bleeding, take off your shirt." She didn't wait for him to comply, just lifted his shirt, not over his head but enough to expose his bare chest, and then ran her hands over his skin, gently prodding, "You're not bleeding," she reported, and her palm brushed one of his pecks again, very slowly, as though not believing. 

"I told you." He looked down at himself, and mid-motion, Kinsey met his eye for a moment, then she also looked down, drew her hand away, and let his shirt fall. Tyler pulled the shirt out, to get a better look at what absolutely seemed to be bloodstains. "I think the thing already had blood on its claws or something." 

"So, what it just attacked someone else?" 

He shrugged. "Maybe it was bleeding itself. Or it sweats blood as some weird magical metaphor for rage." Either way, the worst he'd suffered was bruises. "The most important thing is figuring out what to do next. I don't think this is actually inside anybody's head, though, not anymore." There was just something about it. Headspace was weird, and often bounced them around just because someone was thinking something. This had a different vibe, like the walls and furniture wasn't just metaphors for something, but the actual things themselves. "So, maybe there's another exit, and we can figure out where we are?"

Unfortunately, a quick survey proved that this was optimistic... as far as they could tell, there were no other usable exits to this room, not real ones. Aside from the two doors right where they entered, there were only two others... one was obviously a closet, and the other, oddly enough, seemed to be a bathroom. On the opposite side of the room from that, not visible from where they entered, was a stairwell that led to a blank brick wall, as though someone decided to seal off the room. There were also a few windows, though you had to be pretty high to see out of them. Just to be thorough, Tyler boosted Kinsey up on his shoulders to get a look, where she reported, "They're not real. It's just... a painting."

That made him reconsider whether they were in somebody's Headspace after all. "Painting of what?" Lifting his sister up to sit on his shoulders wasn't hard, exactly, but the effort was making his voice strain, and his back was still sore from when the monster threw him. 

"Woods. A sunny day. It might be the woods outside our place, but I don't know? Wherever it is, it's not a way out."

"There's got to be _some_ way to get in and out. I mean, this thing couldn't have been here as long as that body was out _there_."

"I don't know, maybe it _could_ ," Kinsey pointed out. "My Fear survived being buried alive, for, like, weeks." Tyler wasn't entirely sure it was weeks, but they'd been through so much in the past year that it messed up his sense of time. Sometimes it felt like Dad died only last week, others like they'd lived an entire second lifetime without him. But she was right, her Fear had definitely been buried longer than a human could survive. "I don't think these personified emotions need air, or food, or anything else. They're hard to kill. So this room might have been used to lock it up, keep it safely imprisoned." Without having to return it to whoever's head it came from, which he guessed his sister could understand. The prospect of putting her Fear back in her head was, ironically, one of the few things that still seemed to fill her with dread, she always avoided or changed the subject when someone brought it up as a possibility.

What to do with his sister's rampaging emotions weren't the biggest issue right now, though. "So now _we're_ the prisoners, instead." 

"For now." Kinsey swung one leg off his shoulder, then after she braced herself, the other, and climbed down his body. "Look, we've got the keys, the beast can't come in. And it can't stay there forever." She walked around, casually, like she owned the place, sat down on the couch. "So we wait it out."

He took a breath. "And if we can't? If that thing was stuck in here for _years_... I'm just saying, it might be very patient, and we can't stay in _here_ forever either." 

"Of course not." The words snapped out of her mouth, not angrily, but like she wanted to make sure he knew she wasn't thinking that. "I mean, if we're gone more than a few hours we'd have to worry about someone coming to look for us." 

Panic rose anew, like a taste at the back of his throat. "Oh, God, I didn't even _think_... what if Mom or Bode stumble upon that thing?"

"Relax. Take a breath," his sister advised. "They'll be gone at least the rest of the day." One of Bode's new friends from school was having a birthday event, at a big indoor play park in Boston, and their mom was going along and using the opportunity to get to know the other parents. The chores she assigned, Tyler thought at the time, was one half getting them to do stuff that needed doing and one half keeping them busy and out of whatever trouble she feared they might get into on their own with a day to themselves. 

Tyler was secretly more afraid of the reverse, that something might happen, socializing with other adults, Mom might give into peer pressure, have that just one drink that would inevitably turn into a relapse. He'd made sure to warn Bode to call him if she started acting weird or excessively happy, so that he could go pick them up if need be. That, more than anything, was why he considered staying home that night, although he hadn't told Kinsey and she seemed not to be worried about it, or anything. "We'll find a way out of this before then. But we can take some time, think about this, come up with a plan. Panicking isn't going to do anyone any good." 

She was right, he decided. Even if she wasn't worried about quite the same thing he was... her worries were more practical, actually. He didn't _really_ think his mother would slip again, not just from socializing, not when so much was on the line. It was just a precaution. So the real danger was if the monster was still loose when they came back. 

His sister's lack of Fear still troubled him on a regular basis, but at times like this it was definitely an asset... the danger wasn't immediate, and so she wasn't scared, which gave him space to relax too, instead of their fears amplifying each other. He took a breath, and then, looking more casually than he felt, sat down on the old couch beside her. "Okay. Okay, you're right." Their eyes met, or half-met, a sideways glance both ways, and he wished he already had a plan to give her. A second later, he came up with one, or a fraction of one, and pulled the phone out of his pocket. But as he turned it on, he saw what deep down he expected, and was hoping wasn't true. "No service." That meant no calling any of the other Keepers of the Keys, the other kids who knew what they were getting into--and wouldn't forget the monster the moment it was out of sight--for help. "I guess it's just us."

"We'll get out. It just might take a while." Kinsey said, then let out the briefest chuckle. "Though if we're stuck here too long, _both_ our dates will wind up being disappointed tonight."


	3. Antiques

They sat in silence on the old couch together for several seconds after Kinsey made a joke about missing their dates, a joke she regretted now. She didn't really care about whether either of them missed the dates, but mentioning it put the thought in Tyler's head, which might mean he'd get anxious about the deadline and take a more rash action to get them out before it screwed up the rest of their day, when she knew the smart move was to take it slow. She'd done her fair share of rushing into things since she took out her Fear, and it was something she was consciously trying to be better about. Waiting it out really was for the best. Just sitting there, together... she wasn't worried. On the contrary, she felt _good_ , despite them being stuck trying to outwait a dangerous monster outside.

_How messed up is that?_ she thought, but knew it was probably just that there was an adrenaline rush involved in dealing with some unusual turn of events caused by the magic in their lives. Even when they were dangerous, situations like these came along with a feeling of potential... exciting, exciting potential. They'd already experienced so much that almost nobody else in the world would even believe, and every adventure like this teased the possibility of more. Even if it meant being trapped with her brother for a few hours. _Maybe even..._

She stood up suddenly, deciding it was better to find something to do to keep either their minds from going down unhelpful paths. "Come on, there's gotta be something in this place we can use." Their previous searches had focused on possible exits or useful, readily-in-sight weapons, but there were all sorts of cupboards and other nooks and crannies things could be stored in. "You take that side, I'll take this side?" Her side had the small, kitchen-style table, and she went to investigate the cabinets around that first, while her brother went to check out the sideboard up against the wall near the beanbag chair. 

The first cabinet door Kinsey explored, down at ground level, didn't yield much that could be considered useful, just stacks of old board games, but she paused and looked through them anyway. Some she remembered from her own childhood... Mom, in some of her better phases, liked board games like these as family bonding time, and even if Kinsey's memories of those times weren't always the fondest, they boxes still presented he with an assortment of familiar names. There was Mom's favorite, _Sorry!_ , games that never seemed to work right, like _Mouse Trap_. A few she remembered mostly her and Tyler playing together, just because they were games were one of their parents didn't like for some reason... so when there was a power outage or a grounding sometimes she and her big brother would play one of these games alone, making them them seem like a special treat. She liked _Monopoly_ when it was just her and her big brother, maybe because he let her get away with so much, and _Trouble_ was always fun with him too, and seeing those boxes made her smile. The collection also included a game she and Tyler only played once, _Clue_ , although it could be nothing like the game the two of them played. That lazy summer afternoon, they got bored with the rules as they were supposed to be and made up their own... having what she thought was a lot of fun, but then the next time they were left alone and she suggested they play again, the game had mysteriously disappeared. At the time, she thought Tyler just didn't want to play like that and so pretended not to see the _Clue_ when it was time to choose an activity. After the revelations of the last few months, she had to rethink that. Now that she knew about what happened in the Sea Caves, and what happened after, Kinsey had to wonder if the game, which involved a murder in an old mansion, just brought back painful memories for her father, and _he_ removed it. 

Many of these games now evoked extra memories for her, too, some good, some bad, some mixed. They'd left most of their old family game collection behind when they moved, as the boxes were all falling apart and most were missing pieces... not like these, where the cardboard seemed only slightly worn, almost new, mint condition, even if the boxes sported much more old-fashioned designs than the ones she remembered. Though there were also plenty of games she'd never played, never even heard of. Towards the bottom of the stack were weirder, more esoteric ones, based on old TV shows... _Fantasy Island_ , _All in the Family_ , and _Happy Days_ and she had to wonder a little about the person who assembled this collection, what they were like. 

Her train of thought got interrupted as she heard her brother laugh in surprise, then stood to see what amused him so. "It's like a music system," he revealed, gesturing at the piece of furniture which had false drawers that concealed stereo panels. "But of course it's antique, like everything else in here." He leaned down again to take a closer look. "It actually uses casette tapes." Which surprised Kinsey, a little, the furniture looked old enough that she might have expected old vinyl. "Wonder if it still..."

After a brief movement of Tyler's hands, music filled the room, peppy upbeat vocals singing, starting mid-sentence with, " _rockets in flight, Afternoon delight..._ "

"Guess it still works," Tyler said, as the chorus continued, and moved to inspect the side. "Can't seem to find a power cord though."

"Probably powered by magic," Kinsey said, turning back to her search, bending down to see if there were anything else in the cabinet with the board games, though she couldn't help bobbing a little as the music continued. She was only passingly familiar with the song, and it certainly wasn't her style, but it had an infectious catchiness, kicking up the fun of the situation another notch. 

_"Please be waiting for me, baby, when I come around  
We could make a lot of lovin' 'for the sun goes down..."_

With the sound of a click, the song stopped abruptly, and she looked up at Tyler, who had seemingly lost interest in the machine and had his eyes now cast about the floor as though looking for anything he might have missed. _Spoilsport_ she thought, missing the music, but not enough to ask him to turn it back on, as she pulled out an open box, missing its top, but filled with books, pencils, sheets of graph paper, small plastic geometric shapes. She looked at one of the hardcover books, with two people climbing some kind of statue of a demon, then held it up for Tyler to see. He was back at the machine after all. "Look. _Dungeons and Dragons_. Just like on _Stranger Things_." Actually it was _Advanced Dungeons and Dragons_.

"You ever wonder if that might be real? Like if the writers or something found another door like the Black Door, and based the series on what came out the other side? Or like, maybe they grew up, forgot the magic and just had dreams about things that turned into the Upside-Down or the Mind Flayer."

It was as good a theory as any. The Mind Flayer infecting people did seem a little like what happened with Lucas. "I don't know. Maybe. But I'm telling you now, if we encounter a Demogorgon, I'm out. Those things scare the hell out of me." 

"Do they? I thought, you know, since you lost your Fear..."

The words had been automatic, and when she stopped to think about it, she realized he was right, that's all they were, an old reflex. "I guess not really, not anymore. I mean, if we fought one, I'd be pretty freaked out, but yeah, they don't give me nightmares like they used to." She remembered watching the show, with her brother, the first season it was one, clutching him tightly when it opened the three-flap mouth on its creepy eyeless head. The truth was, by the time future seasons came along, she was already less and less afraid, but still liked watching it with Tyler and kept up the fiction that they bothered her. It was one thing she regretted about losing her fear, the easy comfort of someone you love holding you through fears you knew deep down were baseless, but just needed to be told. These days, the closest she got to that was when they just survived some incredibly dangerous supernatural adventure and embraced to reassure each other they were still there. "You find anything over there?"

"Not really," Tyler reported. "A bunch more cassette tapes. Nothing that looks like a weapon, though, it's all just... like..." he waved a hand towards the ping-pong table, one of the bookshelves. "Like somebody's break room. Except it's all antiques, now. How long has it been? Maybe we should check if it's gone."

"It's only been a few minutes," Kinsey said. "We need to give it time to forget about us." It never would if they kept opening the door. They should just stay put, for a while, take advantage of the situation. "Hey, all this stuff is pretty old, right? Think any of it's valuable?"

Her ploy worked, and Tyler was distracted looking around again, this time, not for weapons, but evaluating. "I don't know. Maybe some of it. But it it's not that old, and most of it looks pretty cheap. It's like digging through somebody's old forgotten basement... there might be a hidden treasure in there, but you'd have to lug all of it over to _The Antiques Roadshow_ or something to find out for sure. But I bet there's nothing more valuable than stuff that's already in Keyhouse." 

Their house itself dated back to the Civil War, as did some of its furnishings, so he was right... mostly. "Except anything at home belongs to Mom, really. This place is _ours._ " The very sound of that made a shiver of pleasure run through her insides, though she clamped down before her hopes got too high. "For now, anyway." It might not stay that way. In the last year, too many things that Kinsey thought of as _her_ , solely or shared, had been taken away, by people like Sam, or Dodge. Lately, on some level, by Jackie. She couldn't always stop it, but she'd also been making an effort not to take things important to her for granted. 

"We can worry about what's valuable once we get out." He was looking towards the door again. 

"A few more minutes," she suggested. "Why don't you put some music back on? We'll use it like, as a timer. We can check the door against after two songs are is over. Not before."

"Fine," Tyler agreed, returning to the sound system, box full of small old-style cassette tapes in his hand. Instead of just playing the tape that was already in there, with a click he popped it out and struggled a moment with opening the plastic box containing another. "If we're going to be stuck here, we might as well have some..." with one last effort the box opened. "Ambience." Then he seemed to struggle with getting it in the proper slot. Kinsey suspected it was all far easier than he was making it, that he was just frustrated. Still, he could have just gone with the easy option, played the tape that was right there already waiting. It wasn't a bad song.

Finally, he figured it out, and music began playing, then a voice. " _You don't realize how much I need you... love you all the time and never leave you._ "

He stopped it there, pressed a button and a whirring sound could be heard. "I can't believe people used to live like this. It doesn't even start at the beginning, and takes forever to go back." He made it stop, then started the music again.

Now it was a similar voice, but sounding a little more wistful, singing, " _Everywhere people stare, each and every day, I can hear them laugh at me, and I hear them say..._ " Now it became punchier, more energetic as he sang, " _Hey! You've got to hide your love away. Hey! You've got to hide your love away._ "

Tyler shook his head. "Maybe it's on the other side," he said, and stopped the tape, flipped it out, turned it over, and put it back in while she watched him. When it started again, this time singing, " _Fallin', yes, I am fallin', and she keeps callin' me back again._ " He looked back at Kinsey, must have caught her questioning look. "This is totally ruining my joke." She tilted her head, raising an eyebrow. "It's the Beatles. 'Help.' Or at least it was supposed to be. I don't know how they ever found the song they wanted on this ancient technology." 

"Don't worry about it. Consider myself amused," she said. And she was. Although she didn't really want help, she was sure she and Tyler could handle this on their own. "Just, stop fiddling with it and let it play."

He raised his hands in an 'I surrender' motion and moved to check out the closet. Kinsey decided to return to her search as well, this time checking up one of the upper cabinets by the table... and smiled at what she found. 

More cardboard boxes, but these ones tall and upright, and beside them, stacks of cellophane-wrapped treasures. Snacks. She pulled one of the packages, some kind of snack cake with one of the old _Peanuts_ characters on it, pulled it open, smelled what seemed like a delicious fruit pie, and took a tiny bite of the crust, confirming that suspicion. Sweet, flakey, not even a hint of staleness. "Good news, even if we're stuck here a while... at least we won't starve." Another, larger bite, getting into the filling now, enjoying as the tart sweetness coated her tongue. The fact that it didn't come with her being transported into somebody else's memory put the final nail in the coffin of Tyler's Remote Head Key theory. 

Tyler closed the distance between them, sounding exasperated. "What are you _doing_?" He softly gripped the hand she used to hold her pie. "Did we not just have a conversation about how _old_ everything is, in here?"

"It's _magic_ Tyler," she reminded her brother, though she did look at the package, looking for an expiry date. There it was after all, in black print. This cherry pie should have been sold before the 1980s. But it was fine. She shook her hand loose and then thrust the treat towards his face. "Here, have a bite. I promise you, it's good."

He hesitated, but she kept waving it in front of his lips, advancing as though she might just mess up his face if he didn't accept it, but then retreating, but after a second, he opened his mouth and she sent the treat home. It was satisfying to watch him give into temptation as he bit in, chewed, and swallowed, and his soft-looking lips widened to a smile. "Okay, that is good."

"Here," she said, and handed the last few bites to him. "I don't want my Cherry anymore, you can have it." She liked it, but it was a little more tart than she'd prefer, and there wasn't much left anyway. She reached back into the cupboard, quickly selecting from the remaining flavors... Banana Creme seemed to be what appealed to her most, and she ripped open the packaging, sniffed just in case, and had a bite, letting the banana goodness fill her mouth. "See? They're like, perfectly preserved."

"Yeah," Tyler agreed. "Just like everything else in here."

A light bulb went off in Kinsey's head. "Just like the monster." She put the pie down on the table for a moment, reached for the key, felt the surface with her thumb. "Tyler, go check outside the door again."

"What happened to two songs?" 

The last had finished now, and they'd moved finally into a Beatles song she recognized, "Yesterday," which seemed appropriate considering this room was right out of the past. Only now she had a theory as to why. "Just for a second."

He looked dubious, but followed her suggestion, and Kinsey didn't carry a weapon this time, just positioned herself so she could see out the moment he did. Her brother took her almost literally, the door opened for barely a second, long enough to see the creature in the equipment shed on the other side, completely still, and then its body lowering into a crouch again. Or more of one. "Yeah, it's still in the same spot."

" _Exactly_ the same spot?" Kinsey asked. He shrugged. "Open and close it again." He gave her another look, like he was trying to figure her out, but did, without questioning. This time, even swifter than the last, but Kinsey could see... again, the Rage monster was frozen in place at first, and then moved ever so slightly just as Tyler began to close the door. But that wasn't all. This time she was paying special attention to the dust motes in the air... which had also been unnaturally still, at first, like a video on pause. 

"Okay, so?" Tyler asked. He hadn't noticed... maybe his fear kept him from seeing what she saw. 

"So... of _course_ it's just waiting there, guarding the door. It makes perfect sense. We figured the beast was locked up in here since... whoever it was, died with the keys." She fished the wallet out, opened it up, read the water-stained ID that was kept there. "Tomas Locke." That gave her pause, for a moment... she had to have expected it was someone from their family tree but she'd never stopped to actually consider it. She'd never heard of Tomas Locke (no H, which was a little weird, something she'd probably have remembered if she saw the name before). Obviously not a direct ancestor, but maybe a great uncle or something. Judging by the picture, Tomas was young, good-looking... looked a little like Tyler, actually... and he died, one of the Keepers of the Keys she'd never heard of, pre-dating her dad and uncle. She read the date on the driver's license, and passed the wallet over. "Look at the date."

Tyler gave it a look. "So from the start of the 80s," he said. "That tracks with everything else in here."

"But the wallet's old and worn, yet nothing in here's been touched," she pointed out. "The food hasn't been eaten, the monster didn't tear up the couch in rage... Tyler, that thing still had _blood_ on its claws, probably from when Tomas got attacked trying to lock it up where it couldn't hurt anybody. Nothing in here's a dusty old antique. It's like time in here completely _stopped_ once the door was closed." And poor Tomas, his whole life ahead of him, must have stumbled off bleeding, keys in his pocket, and died before he could get help, maybe before he could tell anyone what he'd done. 

"And now..." 

He was getting it, she could tell by the tentative excitement in his voice, but she wanted to be the one to say it anyway. She put the keys together and flipped them back and forth. "See, before, this side was raised, like a vault door. But now, this figure on the other side is raised, like whoever this represents stepped in to hold the sun and moon in place. Because the keys are inside when the door's closed, time's stopped _outside_." _Like a break room_ , Tyler had said. That must have been what the room was originally used for, judging by the board games and snacks... a perfect break room, a way to get away from the rest of the world when you needed it, take time to draw or play games or nap, and yet not miss anything important. If Tomas was anything like her, these might have been the magic keys he loved most. Such a shame he needed to turn it into a _Vault_ , to contain a Rage monster. 

One they'd just let back out into the world. Tyler turned towards the door. "So there's no chance of it going away, no help coming for us. It's just going to be out there, with us stuck in here."

"Until we deal with it." A part of Kinsey internally shuddered, not in fear, but in dismay at the notion of them facing a problem that she couldn't just leave alone and hope it would go away on its own, one way or the other. Most problems, despite her lack of fear, that was her first instinct... it didn't often work, but sometimes it was the only option she could stand. This... they were going to have to confront. 

But not right away... and although she didn't want to face the monster, they'd be together, and once they did, they'd have the room to themselves. There would definitely be some upsides. "But Tyler, this gives us opportunities. I mean think about it. No matter how long we stay in here... it's all like bonus time. Any time we take, whatever happens... once we leave these doors, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, it's like it never even happened. Only we'll know." Just because it was a Vault didn't mean that the things locked away had to be dangerous. Vaults also protected special things from a world that could be just as dangerous. 

Her brother looked back at her for the length of a few pounding heartbeats, then said, "So we have time to come up with a plan. Something as safe as possible."

_Okay then,_ she thought as she swallowed and softly let out the breath she'd been silently holding. As safe as possible was absolutely her priority. She might have no fear, but she'd never want her brother to get hurt, rushing into something. So Tyler was right. "Right," she said, keeping her voice level, focused, determined. "A plan."


	4. Dangerous Ideas

The weirdest thing about being stuck in a room with a monster waiting behind the only exit was how easy it made it to procrastinate. Yet, whenever Tyler thought about it, it was always easy to agree to put things off. It just made sense... after all, up to a certain point, no matter _how_ much time they wasted there, the situation at least wouldn't get any worse. Arguably, it could only get better. They could be more rested, more prepared, the lingering soreness on Tyler's backside could fade completely, and that was all good, wasn't it? But it _felt_ strange to not be rushing, and yet, so easy to get distracted by something else they could be doing, to call for a break. 

That was the real magic about this room. In his head, he'd started to call it the Break Room, not just because it was set up with all sorts of distractions available if someone needed to take a study break from their work, but on a more fundamental level. Just being there, outside of time, offered Tyler a rare break from the responsibility that constantly loomed over him. As long as they were in the Break Room, nobody else was in danger, and he couldn't mess everything up... like he had when Dad died. He'd gone over that day a million times, all the things he could have done better. No matter how much family members and counsellors had tried to convince him it wasn't his fault, deep down a part of Tyler still felt his father died because he screwed up, because he hadn't noticed how disturbed Sam was, or because he forgot his key, and pounded uselessly on a locked door which caused Dad to use the distraction to go for the gun that wound up killing him. 

Despite that tragic failure, it seemed people kept depending on him, and he wanted to live up to them, keep everyone he loved safe, but... sometimes it just got to be too much that he convinced himself it was better to push people way, be irresponsible, inconsiderate, not because he didn't care but just to demonstrate to everyone that they shouldn't put their faith in somebody so unreliable. And, sometimes, just selfishly, to lose himself in the easy escapes of parties and drinking or getting high for a while. 

But as long as he was in this room he didn't have to think about anyone else... except Kinsey of course, though with her, aside from a few situations and default brotherly concern--which sometimes got pretty intense--he didn't mind. More than anyone he'd ever known, with his sister, it was always more like having a partner. 

That was part of the reason it was so easy to put off what Tyler knew they had to do. They'd started out by using the graph paper and making a map of the room and the area outside of it, like a hockey playbook, but his sister had the idea to break out a board game and use the pieces to represent the two of them and the monster, and they got caught up in a quick game of _Trouble_ , and then to tried to assemble _Mouse Trap_ since it never worked at home. It was silly, really, a total waste of time... but they had time to waste, and just goofing off with a kid's game, eating snacks, listening to 70s music... all of that, it really just amounted to something he never realized he missed so much... just hanging out with his sister. Unlike a lot of his friends with younger sisters, he rarely thought his was a pain, usually enjoyed spending time with her, even if it was just climbing a tree or quietly pursuing their own interests in the same room. But lately they hadn't had as much time to do that sort of thing, what with dating and other distractions. Sadly, these days, it almost seemed like it took some kind of magic to give them an excuse to be together, and, at least until they finally opened the door and faced what was outside, this adventure was the chillest example of that.

After _Mouse Trap_ , they'd gotten back to The Plan for a while... but it wasn't long before their excesses with sugar caught up to them--or at least, to Kinsey--and became an excuse for another diversion. When his sister complained about her sudden sleepiness, he said, "Well, you're probably sugar crashing," and suggested that, given the circumstances, it was probably okay if she took a nap on the couch, though she deferred at first. It was only after he pointed out that it was probably a pull-out bed that she seemed interested. 

"See, this is why we need to keep this place," she'd said, looking down at the mattress once they pulled it out. "Imagine, a bed, any time you need one. You'd never have to worry about pulling an all-nighter again." Not that he'd needed to do much of that, with the Head Key. During finals, Kinsey asked him for help stuffing herself full of everything she needed for her tests... he didn't feel entirely right about that, but she pointed out that them having to deal with Dodge, a _literal_ demon, all school year impacted their studies in all sorts of ways, it was only fair they use the keys to make up for it. And, in the end, she didn't need him, she could have easily used the Head Key herself, so he helped, and used the same trick on himself. They hadn't told the rest of the Keepers of the Keys though... if what they'd done was wrong, it was their secret. 

He didn't know why he thought about that as his sister climbed onto the couch-bed. Surely using the Break Room to grab an extra nap before a test was even _less_ wrong than what they'd done with the Head Key, but somehow he was starting to feel one of his occasional pangs of guilt that hit him about everything the keys let them do. "It's not the most comfortable," Kinsey said, rolling onto her back, stretching out lengthwise along the bed. "But it'll work."

He looked off to the side, eyes landing on the music player, which had been silent since the last tape finished. Unlike anything that played music in modern times, it had to be manually restarted, and they hadn't bothered after the last time... though even without the music some of those catchy 70s refrains kept running through his head in the silence. "Okay, you go ahead and nap and I'll..." Find something to do.

"Join me?" Kinsey supplied. "I mean, come on, you had just as much sugar as me, I'm sure you could use it too." Lying down for a while, turning off his brain, did sound appealing, but... something made him hesitate. "It's just like in a hotel. No big deal."

That was the last time they'd shared a bed... at least, lying next to each other, under the covers, as opposed to sitting together on one or casually lying on top of the same bed as they talked. In one of the handful of hotel rooms on the road trip from Seattle... and not overnight, of course. If bed-sharing was required on those stopovers, it was Mom with Kinsey and Tyler with Bode, but there was there was one evening where Mom took Bode to check out the pool, and neither Kinsey nor Tyler felt like swimming, and without saying a word, she'd crawled into bed beside him like she used to sometimes when a movie scared her too much to sleep. Only it wasn't the dumb comedy playing on the hotel television that scared her, it was just the reality of life, the recent death of their father, the uprooting of everything to move to Matheson, their whole life had seemed to become a nightmare. They didn't have the words to talk about it, and none were exchanged... honestly he wasn't sure whether she was reaching out to comfort him or he was comforting her. It wound up doing both, for the hour or so they had alone before they heard Bode's voice in the halls and she retreated to the bed she shared with Mom. Nothing odd about that time... nor would there be about this, despite being a happier time, current situation notwithstanding. Just two siblings napping beside each other. Except why _say_ it was 'no big deal?' To say that seemed almost an admission that, for some people, it could possibly be something more, something dangerous, something he needed to instinctively steer clear around, to be responsible. 

He looked back to the table they'd been using, moving pieces around and plotting out various contingencies, until they came up with a strategy they agreed on. "It's probably better that I keep working on our escape."

A frustrated sigh came from Kinsey, and when he looked back he saw her rolling her eyes. "Then I guess I will too." A second later, she explained, "I'm not going to be able to sleep with the lights on, with you... puttering around, doing stuff. I'll feel guilty. I just thought it would help, for both of us to come at this fresh. I mean, it's not like we're on a deadline."

And she was right. They could afford a short nap... and, whatever he was worried about... he was probably just overthinking things. "Fine. Twenty minutes." Although there didn't seem to be a clock in this place, or a way to measure the time passing inside, except for the time on their phones... though the battery was getting low and so he didn't check it or set an alert. It didn't have to be _literally_ twenty minutes. 

He tried not to think about the slight smile of victory on Kinsey's lips when he gave in, and he went back to hit the lights, a black switch in a white plate that they found near the door. With the lights from the chandelier turned off, the room wasn't dark, or at least not completely, but it was dark _er_ , like a room lit by moonlight, a soft silvery radiance from the windows there didn't seem to be a way to turn off. He could still clearly see his sister on the bed, removing the loose hair tie she often kept her hair in when she didn't feel like doing a full braid. She'd probably do that, or something else fancy, for her date with Gabe, and he hoped her boyfriend appreciated the effort, but Tyler liked the way it looked when she let it hang free. And he was somehow glad Gabe didn't get to see her like this, hair down, in this magical moonlight. _I shouldn't be doing this,_ he thought. _I really should be working on getting us out of here._ But he'd already agreed, and what dimness the room could manage was good enough for a nap, so Tyler just moved to the other side of the bed, sat, and swung his legs up and lay back beside his sister. Not under the covers after all... neither was Kinsey... he didn't know why he imagined they might be. Just sharing the bed, to sleep. 

Or try to. His heart seemed to be jittery and nervous and he decided he was probably still on the sugar _high_ rather than the crash, but Tyler still closed his eyes, turned on his side facing away, and tried to clear his mind. It was hard to do while so aware of his sister beside him and the danger looming if they opened that door, that she might get hurt. He didn't expect he'd be able to sleep with that on his mind... but at least he could just stay still and try to corral the possibilities racing through his brain.

When Kinsey turned his way, some minutes later, and unthinkingly lay her arm over his side, he realized she was having no such trouble getting to sleep. Probably another benefit of her lack of Fear. Sometimes he wished he could remove his, too... but of course, it was an even _worse_ idea for him than it had been for Kinsey. He could imagine, only briefly, the sort of dangerous ideas he might pursue with no Fear to hold him back. Yet hearing her relaxed breathing, feeling her light touch, did help quiet the voices in in his head, like she might be able to pick up on his thoughts, and, more important than anything else, it was imperative not to disturb her with those. There was a reason he'd never let her wander inside his brain using the Head Key. _Just count the seconds_ he decided.

Somewhere after he'd lost count, he felt her shift, pull herself to a sitting position. "What time is it?"

"Same time we left, I guess." But then he felt for his phone in his pocket, realized it wasn't there, and got out of bed to where he left it on the table. The clock on the phone still marched on, because it was in the room with them, although it couldn't refresh by getting the time from the rest of the world that was suspended in time. By now it was quite out of sync, and he wondered if it'd be able to cope when they opened the door again. "I figure we were asleep about an hour?" Less on his end, but still far more than he'd expected. He'd rolled over onto his stomach, and Kinsey had followed him almost to the edge. Good thing it was a wide couchbed. 

Now his sister rubbed her dirty blonde hair, pulled it back behind her and back behind her with the hair tie in her pocket. The pink streak seemed to be askew from its normal position, but otherwise it wasn't wildly messy bed hair... but then Kinsey always looked good, even in mornings. "Oof. No wonder my brain feels all foggy. I dreamt..." she looked at him, shook her head. "Never mind." 

"Maybe I should have set an alarm," he said as he went to flip the lights back on. The sudden brightness made him squint, and saw, when he looked in her direction, that Kinsey did as well before she finally stood up, stretched her muscles, and went into the bathroom, stopping a moment at the table to pick up a plastic cup on the way. There was no kitchen in the Break Room, but the bathroom had running water and Tomas or someone else who'd had access to the room had stocked some cups, even put some dish soap in the bathroom so the sink could be used to wash them. It was the only thing they had to drink aside from a few bottles of 70s-era Coca-Cola in the snack cupboard, but they'd left them alone so far, agreeing they wouldn't taste good without refrigeration. Tyler didn't need any water, but he sat down at the table, waiting for Kinsey to get back so they could get back to planning.

Only they didn't, not right away. When Kinsey returned from the bathroom, drink in hand, she aimed a disgusted look down at the table where their makeship map lay. "Ugh. I don't really have the brain power for this right now. Can we get back to this when my head isn't full of cotton? Let's just do something dumb and fun, for a while."

And again he'd agreed, because... why not? They had time. 

They played a little ping-pong, which was fun, until a too-aggressive shot from Kinsey sent the ball somewhere with several bounces neither of them could follow or spot once it landed. They gave the room a quick search, but couldn't find it, and when he looked up from checking under the bed and saw Kinsey standing by the bookshelf. He'd given it a cursory look earlier... it was mostly filled with pulp paperbacks that looked like they ranged from the forties to the seventies, with a few outliers that were much older. But on one of the upper shelves, and what caught Kinsey's attention, was a stack of comic books. "Oh, wow."

 _Wow?_ Weird how someone you've known practically your whole life could still surprise you. He might have guessed she would have reacted with mild curiosity to a stack of old comics, but instead she took a handful and dropped herself down on the bed, laying on her stomach, fanning her selections in front of her. "Since when were you into comics?"

"I don't know, a while?" She said it casually, and then after a second looked back as though she could sense his surprise and with a self-conscious smile, asked, "What?"

"Nothing. It's just I've _never_ seen you with a comic."

"Digital comics are a whole thing, Tyler. What, because I don't want to drag myself to a comic store, I can't like them? Just because I'm a girl..."

"I never said that," Tyler clarified. "I just didn't know _you_ were into them."

She still sounded defensive, and he wondered if maybe Fear once kept her from sharing this interest. "It's like saying 'I didn't know you were into movies.' It's a whole medium. It's not just superheroes, there are tons of different types of stories out there." Her lower legs curled up behind her as she began to sort through the pile. "See, even here. Horror. Superhero. Horror. Western. Superhero. Superhero horror, I think?" Her head shook as she realized the distinction was meaningless. "Okay, in this era maybe they're not the most diverse. But the art can be spectacular." She finally chose one, flipped it open until she found a page she liked, seven panels, mostly of a brown-haired man and a blonde who may or may not have been a ghost, though whatever the case the second-to-last one seemed to show him voluntarily returning to her. "The lines and colors are simple, but they still pack so much detail in so little space. And look at this car." One of the panels was a car, alone at night on a road that seemed spectacularly unremarkable to Tyler's eye but must have been impressive to her. "I wish I could draw cars this good." But she tossed that comic aside, selected another, and this one she began reading from the first page. "I bet Uncle Duncan would _love_ these. You know he started out wanting to be a comic book artist?" _That_ Tyler had known... in fact, he realized he was wrong, he _had_ seen Kinsey with a comic before, visiting their Uncle... at the time, he just figured she was being polite, never imagined she actually took to it. But it made sense, they talked a lot together about art-stuff... something he never had much talent for.

"Yeah. He had his own superhero team idea." He wasn't paying attention enough to remember the details, but he did like hearing him reminiscing about his passions. And the same was true for Kinsey, now... even more so. He just liked hearing her excited, sharing something she didn't often talk about, and he wanted to keep her talking, see what else was there. Yet asking directly about it, when she hadn't shared it before, seemed almost intrusive, so he said the first thing that came to mind to continue the conversation at her own pace. "So, what, you think these were his? As a kid?"

She shook her head, and he put it together before she even said it. "I don't think the timing works out. I think this... Vault must have been closed before Uncle Dunc was born." The comic she'd earlier tossed aside was titled _Vault of Horror_ , which he assumed must have been the source of that particular phrase. He preferred Break Room. "They probably belonged to Tomas Locke... though some of these are from, like, the fifties, so maybe he found them here too, from someone else. The room might have been passed down like any other key. Except it skipped a generation."

"The music player's from the seventies," he pointed out. It looked a lot like the basement of their own place, in fact, which had always given him a 70s vibe. 

"The chandelier and bathroom fixtures look older, though." The oldstyle clawfoot tub did look like the most old-fashioned thing in the room, but it was also the kind of thing that Mom and Dad would put into a house to raise the value. "I bet when Tomas found this place, he brought some stuff in, made it his own. We can do the same thing."

That still sidestepped the origin of the room, and the keys themselves, but that was too big a question for him to worry about, especially when they had more pressing concerns. "Assuming we get out of here. There's still a monster at our door. We should decide how we're going to deal with that."

"Well..." she held up the comic, the cover displayed a severed arm hanging from a subway car handhold, while other passengers looked on in horror. "A lot of these are horror comics, right?" He nodded. "So... they're filled with monsters, and people dealing with them. That means reading them counts as research."

It was a flimsy justification, but he didn't fight it. They had time, after all. What was one more break? So he shrugged, put on another tape, and grabbed a few other comics off the stack, although instead of taking up Kinsey's room to stretch out on the bed he sat down in in the beanbag chair--which, despite looking far more rustic than the commercial ones Bode had in his room, turned out to be surprisingly comfortable. 

Not surprisingly, old comic books did not hold the solutions to their current problem. At least none of the ones he read, though he'd mostly gravitated to the superhero stories, and most of what he read he felt like he'd enjoy more if he was a little high. What Kinsey shared of her horror comic reading didn't seem particularly applicable either, but more than reading himself he liked hearing her laugh and explain some ridiculous twist or point out some weird old sexist attitude, or show off some art she particularly liked. 

"I'm out," she said, eventually, and he looked up from the weird comic he was just about done with, turned his head to the left where he could see Kinsey's head over the edge of the bed. "Want to trade?" she asked, holding up one book and shaking it back and forth. "You can delve into my _House of Mystery_ if you give me your..." Her eyes narrowed as she read the cover he was reading. " _Giant-Size Man-Thing_?" Her face faintly colored as she broke into a smirk, and then lowered her head towards the mattress as though to hide both of them. "Wow, I can't believe they got away with a title that sounded _that_ lewd. Wertham probably pitched a fit about it."

"Who?"

"Just this guy who started a witch-hunt against comics in the fifties. Said they were harmful to children, that they promoted dangerous ideas. For the longest time, horror comics were almost completely banned because of him."

"Crazy." Tyler smirked to himself. He knew his sister was an art nerd, but he'd rarely got to see her nerd out on art history.

"He's kind of right though. I mean, I don't agree that it's _harmful_ , but... horror's always been a way to sneak dangerous ideas to an audience, under the radar, things they might not listen to openly, like how zombies were used to talk about racism, consumerism, stuff like that."

He let out a short snort of amusement. "Is this the kind of stuff you talk about with the Savini Squad group? Horror symbolism?"

"No. Well, sometimes. Scot does get on a tear about hidden underlying messages in movies sometimes. I guess some of it rubbed off on me."

He liked Scot a lot more now that he and Kinsey were just friends, but he'd never really understood their relationship. "I never would have imagined you falling in with a group making a horror movie." _After the horror we lived through_ , he didn't add. "Or enjoying horror comics, for that matter."

She might have known what he was getting at anyway. "I don't know. Safe scares, you know? Not that I can _get_ scared anymore. But it can be empowering, too. And even when it's dark, there's, like, a strangely hopeful side... because if you can make yourself believe all this impossible supernatural stuff as real, it also lets you think that maybe _other_ impossible stuff, good stuff, might be possible too."

"Supernatural stuff _is_ real, though."

"Yeah," she said softly, and shrugged. "But most people don't know that. And just because a few impossible things can happen, doesn't mean _everything_ can. But it's nice to indulge your dreams."

Gathering his share of the comics in one hand, Tyler pushed himself out of the beanbag chair and approached the bed his sister lay in. She raised her eyebrows, until he dropped the stack of comics. "Here, go nuts. I think I'm going to get another snack."

She grinned. "While you're up, get me something, too? Something salty, maybe?" 

It was in the snack cupboard, seeing it look suddenly bare--not completely, but merely because they'd already gone through almost half the snacks--that he got his first wake-up call, a reminder that it was all an illusion, this endless time they'd been playing with, this break from responsibility. That was the real dangerous idea, that there was always more time... true for life in general, but especially now, because no matter how they might pretend otherwise... he did have a responsibility, and they did have a deadline, of sorts, a thoroughly practical one. Nothing that was left even really made for a real meal. Especially for Kinsey... the cupboard had a few forty-something-year-old _Slim Jims_ that could give him a little protein, but his sister was a vegetarian and so here she was stuck with mostly empty calories. They'd have to face the threat, and soon, while they were still strong. But as he looked over again at her reading a comic, enjoying hesrself, he couldn't bring himself to lay down the law, just yet. Besides, she did ask for a snack. Towards the back there was an already-opened but still half-full box of something called _Pizza Spins_ that, after a quick check of the ingredients, he thought seemed mildly nutritious, vegetarian, and something she might like... they sounded pretty good to him, too, but he had other options. He brought her the box and then chose a _Slim Jim_ for himself, sat down at the table while he munched on it.

He pored over the rough map they'd made, trying to think of another angle, an outside-of-the-box solution, but his eyes eventually fell on the old weathered wallet that rested on the table, and he idly opened it. He spent a few seconds looking at the driver's license photo of Tomas Locke, trying to understand the man who died locking a monster up. Maybe it was even his _own_ Rage monster, and he was trying to be responsible, capture and contain it for the good of everyone else. 

Another scrap of yellow caught his eye, and he pulled loose a fragment of a photo, a blonde woman. Water damage obscured many of the details of her face and faded the background, but from what he could see, she seemed pretty, and about his age, so Tyler guessed that this was his girlfriend, probably who he was trying to protect, and who he left behind. Tomas' body lay behind that tree for decades, so as far as everyone he loved was concerned, he just disappeared. Either he never told anyone his plan or he didn't have the luxury of time. It occurred to him that this girl in the photo might be still alive, out there in the real world. If she ever knew about the keys then she'd probably forgotten now, but still might wonder what happened to Tomas, probably never knowing he died trying to protect her. At least, he had to imagine that was part of it... he could be okay with sacrificing himself like that, if it would protect someone he loved, but it would wreck him doing that to Kinsey. _Jackie_ , he mentally corrected. _Or_ his sister, yes, or Mom and Bode. It was just as true for family, of course.

Being on the other side, left behind, with questions but no answers, might be scarier than death, and he could see that possibility happening too, especially with his sister, out there without her Fear, rushing towards magic sometimes without thinking of consequences. Worst of all, though, would be to to be the cause of the pain, to screw up and get Kinsey hurt. No wonder he'd procrastinated so much in here, putting off a confrontation where that was a real risk.

A hand on his back made him flinch, just for a moment. It was Kinsey. She must have seen him brooding and gotten up without him noticing. "Hey, you okay?" The hand, now no longer a surprise, returned to his back, rubbing softly, comforting.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "Just thinking." It was time for him to say it. "We can't stay here forever, Kins. We're going to deal with things, one way or another."

"I know," she agreed. "I know. I've been putting it off. I'm sorry." She felt her hands leave, and then moved towards the other seat, leaning over their makeshift map to give it an appraising look, ready to be partner again. "No more comics, no more games, no more stalling. Let's put our heads together and figure out how to deal with this thing."


	5. Dangerous Tools

"I'm just saying, it's the easiest way."

Already they were arguing again. This was why Kinsey kept putting things off. _Well, not the only reason._ But it was so easy to _not_ worry about the monster outside and how they were going to deal with it, and she knew they didn't see eye-to-eye, so why _not_ put it off as long as possible. 

Maybe she was just being stubborn. _No, I'm absolutely being stubborn,_ she decided, but that was the thing about stubbornness... even when you realize it you're _still_ not likely to change your mind because whatever it is you've got yourself set on doing, it was important to you. Even if it was for stupid reasons. "Easiest doesn't mean best, Tyler," she said. "Sometimes it's worth doing things the hard way."

"The hard way could get us killed. Jesus Christ, Kins, I worry enough about you with the shit we already deal with without you rushing in to more danger."

Multiple reactions fought for dominance within her but she had to fight back the smile that bubbled up out of the warm rush of pleasure at him saying he worried about her, so instead she leaned into her just-as-genuine annoyance of that fact and rolled her eyes, since she didn't _need_ him protecting her. Besides, of _course_ he worried over her. That's what you do with family. "You don't have to worry about me," she said. "I'm not fragile. I can take anything you can. I faced down my Fear alone, remember? When I took it out and dragged it out of my head, you weren't even there."

"You've _always_ been capable of facing down your fear when it counted," he pointed out after a pause. "But this isn't _your_ Fear. We don't know what it's capable of."

"And we took down Dodge together. This thing can't be as bad as her and her creepy shadow monsters. We can beat it. At least drive it off. Maybe even kill it." And then maybe learn how to do the same for her Fear.

He bowed his shaking head. "You don't think Tomas would have done that if he could? He found the answer, we just have to do it again. The next time we open the door, that thing's rushing in here. So why fight it? You hide behind the door and I'll stay in to draw it out, and then you slip out and get ready to slam the door from the other side. Then all I have to do is get past it."

"And what if you don't get past it?" Kinsey asked. That gnawing chasm in her soul when she asked the question... it wasn't fear, not exactly, just an awareness that she would be destroyed if things went badly, something she couldn't bear thinking about. "If anyone should lure it out, _I_ should." She didn't want to do that, either, but it was easier to contemplate than losing Tyler... being bait wasn't really her plan, it was just a way to, hopefully, talk Tyler out of his. Being manipulative like that made her feel a little guilty, but it was a tool she was willing to use if necessary. The only problem was she wasn't sure it _was_ necessary. What she had in mind was probably just as dangerous, but at least their fates would be joined... and, of course, the prize she had her eye on at the end.

"I'm better off doing it... it's just like a hockey play... I was always good at deking out the other players, remember?"

Of course she remembered. She used to love watching him on the ice... whenever she could, she used to hang out while he practiced, to do her homework or sketch... and her eyes were often drawn to him more than her work. Or, sometimes, combining the two. She had more than a few sketches that were just Tyler, on the ice, trying, usually unsuccessfully, to capture the power, the grace, she saw, or the fluid movement, the ease with which, if he wanted to, he could fool someone on the other team about his true intentions. Girls she knew in Seattle used to say he did the same thing off the ice, made them think he was into them and then suddenly changed course and seemed like he didn't care, and though Kinsey had given her share of platitudes about how boys were dumb and insensitive, she'd secretly thrilled at these swerves too, dodging out of the path of some mediocre relationship with someone not good enough for him. Though she hadn't seen either kind of clever escapes, ever since he gave up hockey and started dating Jackie. He probably still had the skills... but she wasn't sure she wanted to see him putting them to the test now.

"You're not on the ice, it's not exactly the same thing." There, he had skates, and a stick to defend himself, and protective equipment. Here, in the Vault, there was just her... and he wanted her slipping out while he kept the monster distracted. "It caught you right outside the door, remember?"

"I was surprised. There's enough space in here for me to get past him, slip out the door... then we close it and boom, the monster's back in its cage."

Which was exactly what she _didn't_ want. "Then we _lose_ this place. I'd rather handle the monster _outside_." That was the plan she hadn't been able to sell Tyler on, but she tried again. "It's going to _expect_ us to run and hide. It's not going to expect us to rush it." She tried to imagine the situation from it's perspective. Time was stopped outside, so it had probably chased Tomas into the room, after mortally wounding him, and got locked there... then, seconds later, the door opened again and two different people standing at the door scared of it. Or maybe it thought Tyler _was_ Tomas, there was a certain family similarity. But it attacked, and they ran, closed a door on it... and opened, and closed, and opened a few times in quick succession. What would it think if the door opened one more time and they saw a team, determined, ready to beat it? "Maybe we'll scare it off. Or at least throw it off its game long enough to get something to fight it with... there's plenty of tools in the shed that could be dangerous."

"Or maybe we'll get hurt. You don't know how strong that thing is." He took a breath. "Look, I get that you don't want to lose this place. I don't either. But locking the thing in here doesn't have to be permanent... it just buys us time to find a better way."

Her heart sank at her growing realization that she was going to lose this fight. Tyler was right... just not about everything. "We'll just put it off forever," she pointed out sadly. The same logic that made his plan the better one meant that the safer option would always be to leave the monster frozen in the Vault, unable to escape.

Tyler's voice softened as though he sensed how much she didn't want that. "We don't have to. We can find a way to use the other keys, maybe. Or get Gabe and Scot to help."

"I don't want that," she said, almost before he finished his suggestion, and then felt a brief spurt of shame, like she showed herself too much. Though she also found it interesting that he volunteered her friends who knew the secret, not his.

"Okay." That was all Tyler said, but she could hear the question in it.

"Tomas was a Locke. This is a Locke family problem and needs a Locke family solution." The words just spilled out... it wasn't the real reason, but it sounded good enough to maybe convince Tyler she had a point. "And we're certainly not getting Bode or Mom involved, so it's got to just be us"

They locked eyes, and Kinsey hoped for a moment he'd say something, agree with her, maybe not her plan for what they do when they open the door, but at least promise that they don't get anyone else involved, that this remained their own private adventure. But at the same time, she doubted it. 

Sometimes, when she thought about Tyler, a quote ran through her head. _He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same._ Verbatim quotes from _Wuthering Heights_ often popped up in her head, ever since she tossed the whole book inside her head to help her with her last English essay, but that particular one gave words to a feeling she'd had since they were kids. It wasn't _literally_ true, she knew that... she and her brother were different in a million different ways, but at the same time, underlying everything there was a kinship of spirit she always felt with Tyler despite those differences. Removing her Fear felt like a step towards being more like him at first--not why she did it, of course, just a bonus--but she'd come to realize it may have been the opposite. Still, there were moments where he seemed to know exactly what she wanted him to say, even when she didn't know herself, and she hoped this would be one of those moments.

Tyler's eyes dropped, and Kinsey knew that it wasn't to be. As he stared down at the table, his fingers played with one of handheld pie snacks in front of him, one of the the few they hadn't already gone through. "You know," he said, after a moment, with an amused glint in his eye, "If this were one of those comics, all we'd have to do is tempt the monster with one of these fruit pies and problem solved."

It wasn't the perfect thing to say. But it made her smile, broke some of the terrible tension, and that was good enough for now... sometimes she had to take what she could get and be satisfied. "I think that only works with _Hostess_ fruit pies," she pointed out, remembering those ads not just from the Vault's collection but some of Uncle Duncan's old ones. "With this _Peanuts_ stuff we might just have to pull it away at the last second so the thing falls on its back." She wasn't 100% sure that was the right reference, but with the look on his face as her joke landed it either was, or it didn't matter. Trying to keep that spirit of fun going, she reached for the plastic cage from the _Mouse Trap_ game, which had fallen apart too many times. "Sure we can't rig up a ridiculously complicated machine to drop a cage on its head? I mean we don't have a cage but we could probably make a net out of the bedspread."

He looked back to the bed, almost looking like he was considering it seriously, then looked back with a smirk. "I mean considering we couldn't even get this plastic Mouse Trap to stay together, I think simple's probably better. But... I don't know, maybe it might be worth rigging up some, like, trip wire or something, if you think it'd help?"

One last long glance around the room followed, but Kinsey was only superficially looking for ideas. There were a few options, but no good ones... stringing the net from the ping pong table might make a tripping hazard, or they might scatter small objects on the floor it might step on, which could buy them a few seconds--but in both cases she worried too much about Tyler accidentally tripping on them in his attempt to escape. Simple _was_ better. So her last look around the room was really more to say goodbye, come to terms with probably losing this place. She and Tyler had to be on the same page, and though she loved when she could sway him over to her point of view, sometimes she had to be the one to change, give up something she wanted.

His hand suddenly reaching for hers made her flinch, look back at him with hope. "Hey. I promise we'll find a way to get the monster out again. Once we get out of here, we have more options... maybe we can use the Matchstick Key, or the Mirror Key." If they found it again. "But the priority is..."

"Us," she finished, and nodded. "I know." She took a breath. He obviously wasn't going to go for her plan... and damn his annoying-but-cute protective streak, he wasn't going to let her be the bait either... all that was left was to trust in his ability. And she did, mostly. "Okay, I open the door, you lead him into the room and get by him. But Tyler...?" His eyes met hers. "Get by him."

He pulled back his hand, gave a cocky smile that she knew was partly just bravado, and then it faltered. "But if I don't, you run."

"No..."

"You run, shut the door, and get backup. It'll only be a second for me, dum-dum." The old insult had too much affection behind it this time for Kinsey to actually take offense, and he continued, "Take the time you need to do it right, get the other Keepers of the Keys, gear up with whatever magic you need, and every sharp tool in the shed, and come save me when you've got the odds on your side." 

That was a little better, but she still didn't like it... her jaw worked soundlessly thought her lips remained tight until she said, "Fine. But you make sure I don't have to."

"That's the plan." 

When Dad was alive, he'd sometimes quote a saying, when a schedule went awry or looked like it might, when weather ruined a fun outdoor event, and sometimes just as a life lesson, one she knew he used in Guidance Counselling sessions sometimes, too. _No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy._ It may have originally been meant about literal battle plans and literal enemies, but for Dad he extended it to life in general... planning is important, but there's always something unexpected that can screw up the best laid plans, and it's more important to be adaptable. Kinsey didn't remind Tyler of the quote then, and she didn't even think about it, until their own plan started to go off the rails.

Kinsey had looked back at Tyler from her station at the door, trying to push down her last minute doubts... not fear, just doubts, and worries. Something happening to him still seemed worse than any other outcome _... if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger._ Losing the Vault was okay, comparatively. 

The speed with which the creature burst through when she finally grabbed the handle and pulled surprised her. All the peeks they'd taken, even for a split second, both added up and hid the momentum it was building, so that when time finally started again, for good, it rushed forward with a growl and went after the only enemy it could see. Tyler.

According to the plan, she should have been watching from the other side of the door, but she stood in the frame, unable to look away until she knew he had gotten past the monster. But he did his job reasonably well, dodging out of the way of the first charge, although he had to evade a swipe of the claws at the same time, and it didn't quite leave him enough space to run past and out to the door, so he did one of his hockey deke moves, ran at an angle, let it chase him and then suddenly pivoting direction, leaving the monster to bang into the edge of the couch-bed and giving Tyler space to run, step over the beanbag chair and have a clear path to the door. 

If one of his legs hadn't suddenly slipped out from under him, he would have made it, too. Kinsey saw it a split second before it happened, the rolling ping-pong ball, dislodged from its previous rest space by the beanbag chair, rolled in exactly the wrong angle and so found its way under Tyler's foot when he was expecting the ground. She could hear the soft crunch as it flattened under her brother's weight, but it must have had just enough roundness to it to cause him to first pitch forward, then tumble, landing on his chest and arms.

There was no time to think. Tyler had said, if things went wrong, to leave him, to run and get help, but she couldn't, and Kinsey burst into motion, the reasons and justifications only occurring to her mid-dash. The monster was momentarily distracted with the pain from hitting the bed, and it wouldn't last long, but she thought there was just enough time to help him to his feet before the monster got there. But mostly, her decision to rescue him didn't come from tactical analysis and just the fact that she couldn't bear to leave him, especially when this was her fault. The ping pong ball _she_ deliberately spiked off the table because it was match point and she knew Tyler would want to get back to planning... losing the ball and gaining some time seemed like an innocent mistake at the time but now it had come back to bite her. 

She grabbed Tyler's shirt, helped him to his feet, catching a hint of disapproval in his eyes but no argument, just scrambling to make the most of her decision, but the monster was hot on their heels as the two barrelled through the door back into the real world. Kinsey reached back at the last moment to pull the door closed. 

A clawed hand made its way around the edge before she could get it all the way, wrenched it back open, and she realized Tyler's plan had not survived first contact with the enemy, so they were going to have to go with a variation of her own plan. Backing into the shed, Tyler at her side, the monster took a moment to howl with triumph, as though realizing how nearly it was trapped again, but that gave them just a few seconds before it attacked again. Kinsey grabbed the first tool that looked like it might be useful, a wooden pole leaned up against the wall by the door, only discovering after she'd pointed the pointy end away from her that it was a four-tined pitchfork which seemed an odd thing to have considering she'd never seen hay on the property. Tyler, meanwhile, used his few seconds of grace to pulled open the red toolbox at his side and, after some intense metal jingling, came back ready with a hammer raised defensively. 

"Run, Kinsey," he said, and charged at the creature, swinging the hammer towards its head. _You idiot,_ she thought, but it was too late, he'd already played the hero, landing a clumsy blow on the monster's arm, which had raised defensively like anybody would, and then swept outward, pushing Tyler away, but luckily with no serious harm beyond the force itself. 

Kinsey stepped forward then, using the tines of the pitchfork more intelligently, she thought, warding it away, trying to herd it back into the room... if it was her on the other end of it, she'd move back, but instead it pushed forward. The sharp prongs dug into the monster's midsection, causing it to screw up its face and cry in pain, but not retreat. Instead, it seemed to be trying to get past it, like it didn't realize what it was preventing forward motion and making it hurt. She had to use all her strength to hold it back... but she was, at least, holding it back.

Tyler regained his footing, saw they were at a stalemate, and took a second to look around. "You think you can hold it here for a little bit? I have an idea."

 _I hope it's better than your last idea_ she thought, even though she knew it was unfair, he was only trying to protect her. At the other end of her pitchfork was a snarling monster, and she felt like some kind of wild animal wrangler... facing something that could kill her if it got free, but for the moment, she was in control of the situation... it might not even be able to pull itself off of the tines. "I've got this," she said. 

He moved out of sight, and she wanted to turn her head and follow, but she couldn't afford to take her eyes off the monster, it was too wild and unpredictable to risk complacency. At the same time, she did have control for the moment, which filled her with a rush of confidence that almost made up for the burning muscles. Looking at it one yard too away, she almost pitied the thing... it appeared _almost_ human, even though she knew it wasn't... the red eyes held no sense of rationality, and even beyond that and the claws and fangs, she could now see the blood--or whatever it was--seeping out from the pitchfork tines. This wasn't like the blood of any animal she'd ever seen, an almost neon red, with a sour smell. The creature may have come from a human, but it wasn't human itself... it didn't even seem to resemble the photo of Tomas very much... there were more lines on the face, a bigger nose. Then again, her Fear didn't look exactly like her, either, so that didn't mean anything. 

They remained in that stalemate for what felt like a minute, and she was impressed at her own strength and endurance. The adrenaline of the situation must have energized her, but also... _Is that my imagination?_ she wondered when she first saw it. It seemed like the thing was just a little bit smaller than when it first came at her. _Maybe now that Tomas is dead, his Rage is slowly dying out._ Before long, she might even be able to push it back into the Vault. 

The roar of an engine revving to life distracted from her thought, first with a fear that it was Tyler starting the car, leaving, but then she realized he wouldn't do that, and the whirring was different, angrier. "Try to bring it this way," Tyler called, and she put it together, decided it was the best course of action. The creature might be dying out, but it could still do a lot of damage in the meantime. She backed up carefully, letting the still angry creature advance in turn, carefully guiding it. On the way she caught a glimpse of the sunlight outside the shed through the corner of her eye... it seemed impossibly early for how long they were in the Vault (but of course... it would). Before too long she circled around to where Tyler stood in front of an engine of whirling menace. He whistled. "Hey, freak. Want to pick on someone your own size?"

The monster's attention was easy to divert, and Kinsey was wrong... it _could_ slip off the tines, the simple-minded creature just needed a target in another direction, a target Tyler provided. It pulled away, launched itself in his direction, and Tyler held in position, ready to take the charge, until the last second, when he dodged to the side. At the same moment, Kinsey rushed at it... its own momentum had already done most of the work, and a little lift and push with the pitchfork did the rest, forcing the monster into the wood chipper.

Tyler was right beside her at the last second pushing with his hands while she pushed with the pole. Though both of them winced at the final inhuman wail, the thing wasn't reacting like she imagined a body might, it was almost cartoonish, like the moment it hit the blades it had turned from solid into a liquid... even the parts of it that looked like clothes, when real fabric might have gotten tangled in the blades, just evaporated. If her theory was right, it might not actually have a physical form at all, just Rage made manifest, Rage that could no longer be sustained. Soon, there was nothing left of it except the spray of bright red out the other end, and what portion of it the gunk had splashed back on their faces and bodies. She'd been splattered, again, like in Scot's movie... but unlike the stuff that triggered a panic attack, back when Kinsey still had her Fear inside her, this gunk was too unrealistic to be disturbing. It was just... bright red oily goo. If anything, it smelled like hot sauce, though she didn't want to taste it. 

She looked over at her brother, worried that he might be having a reaction like the old Kinsey, but he looked more like he'd just had a pizza-making accident or a paintball battle than that they'd been in a fight for his life, and she let loose a nervous giggle, which made him smile and shake his head in amusement and relief, and she knew everything was going to be okay. 

"You got a little, um, Rage monster on your face," he said and pointed.

"Yeah, you too." She looked back at the door that still hung open, leading to the Vault, that was all theirs again, this time with no danger, no time limit. "But, you know... if we need to clean up... at least there's a shower not far away." 

Kinsey turned and walked back into the Vault, hoping Tyler would follow.


	6. Family Secrets

Tyler tugged at his collar, the tight seemingly impossibly tight in the summer sun, but not just that.

He hated funerals. 

This one was certainly less emotional than his last, but at the same time it brought back memories of the shell-shocked hours staring at Dad's coffin, a coffin he wouldn't even be staying in since they were going to cremate him later. Now he was watching a different coffin, this one being lowered into the ground where it would stay forever. At least it wasn't the same suit. That one was destroyed. 

But it was still a Locke family funeral.

Or, rather, technically it wasn't a funeral, not really, but an internment... Tomas Locke was finally going home, to the family cemetery. Tomas' closest living relative was their uncle Duncan, and even he had no actual memories of the man, just some of the legend. He stood to Tyler's left, watching the descending coffin in a much better suit, an unreadable expression on his face. Beyond them, Mom, trying to look solemn and reflective, or maybe actually so, and Bode, trying not to fidget in his dress shirt.

Tyler turned his head to the right, looked to Kinsey, for a moment, dressed in a dark colored dress that was dignified enough for a funeral but wouldn't raise any questions if she wore it outside. Her eyes flicked his way in the same moment, which caused him to look away, suddenly, guilty... not at being caught looking, of course, but at the reminder of the shared secret.

The secret wasn't the biggest or even the most dangerous one he'd ever kept, but he still felt bad about it. As far as everyone else attending the funeral knew, Tomas Locke was found by an anonymous trespasser who called in a tip to the police but didn't want to leave a name in case being on what was technically part of Locke property got them in legal trouble. A quick check by a bored coroner confirmed Tomas' identity through dental records and pronounced the cause of death an animal attack because of the shredded clothes and nicks on the bones that couldn't be made by knives, which was good enough for the police to lose interest. Bears had been known to occasionally wander onto the property in previous decades... they hadn't been seen in the area in years but many of the properties bordering on wilderness, Locke estate included, kept bear traps. Rufus had even showed Bode those, and the 'wandering bear' explanation wrapped everything up as far as the police were concerned. They certainly wouldn't have believed Tomas was killed by some kind of rage monster pulled out of somebody's head with a magic key.

It was Kinsey's idea to report the body anonymously, to act as surprised as anybody so that nobody, not even their friends, not even Bode, would wonder what drew them to the body, and if they'd found any keys there. "Let's keep these keys to ourselves," she'd said, after they cleaned up from the rage monster fight. The keys, and more importantly, the Break Room they lead to. And that meant the fight and everything that led up to that, too. "At least for now. Besides, we don't know for sure if there's anything in the Vault that might be dangerous." It felt more like an excuse, but it was an excuse he could latch onto in order to agree, although not without some guilt. But funerals and guilt seemed familiar partners.

The service was Mom's idea, to honor a member of the family line she married into, her late husband's uncle, a man none of them, even Dad, really knew. But family was family, and Tomas had a place in the Locke family cemetery marked out, so he deserved family to be there when they brought him home.

Practically _just_ family, as it turned out, but that was a series of unrelated decisions rather than any plan. Almost nobody who knew Tomas back in the day were able to attend the burial, many of them having moved out of state and already done their grieving decades ago... or maybe there was something unnerving to them about the Locke cemetery itself, since a few locals who had turned down the offer to come to the internment had tentatively promised to attend a memorial service planned a few days later. Of course, Jackie had offered to come, several times, but he gently pushed her off, told her he'd feel weird someone standing around comforting him for someone he didn't even know. He encouraged her to hang out with Eden instead, who was spending the summer house-sitting. He didn't know why Kinsey didn't invite Gabe, or maybe he just didn't care enough to show up, though Tyler had overheard his sister telling Scot it wasn't necessary for _him_ to show up. 

That meant that aside from the priest (who had known Tomas, if only in passing), and Uncle Duncan's boyfriend Bryan, it was only Lockes watching Tomas' coffin being lowered into the ground. Then, covering it in soil, which Duncan wanted to do himself rather than just using the guy they hired, and as it turned out, the whole family helped, although Bode's and Nina's shovels were more symbolic than anything else, and although Kinsey gave a few good loads of soil, she allowed Tyler to take over without much complaint, and he, Duncan, and Bryan did enough to cover the coffin, working up a sweat in the summer sun, before turning it over to someone who'd do the rest and make it all neat, and then they went inside for some refreshments in the Portrait Room.

He'd told Jackie the funeral wouldn't bother him, and he didn't think he was lying at the time, but the whole thing left him distinctly unsettled. Not that he regretted telling her to stay away... he didn't think she could help with this anyway. It only got worse when they sat inside the drawing room and Duncan finally felt ready to start talking about some of what must have been rolling around in his own head. "You know, in some ways we're all here because my Uncle Tomas disappeared. My dad--your grandpa--grew up here, but then moved away, and he and his dad never really got along, so they'd stopped talking for years. My grandfather wasn't easy to live with, especially after my grandmother died... and everyone assumed Tomas ran off after this big fight they had. But after my Aunt Kait died so young--she had some kind of undiagnosed heart condition and it just stopped one day--my grandfather looked around, saw how alone he was in this big old house, and reached out to my dad. Loss does that, sometimes, brings people together." Or the opposite. Duncan looked around with a smile, like he was drawing a parallel between what happened to Rendell Locke, that it had brought all of them closer too. And it had, in its way, but it was a long road. 

Tyler was reminded of that first day they found the Head Key, just before seeing Bode using it, when Kinsey lamented that he was like a stranger, because they used to be so close, and they were. Then Dad died, and Kinsey needed him more than anyone, and he did his best... but no, he didn't, really... he did what he could manage. She wanted him closer, he could feel that, but a part of him just knew that he couldn't let her get any closer than they were, that would be _too_ close, he'd only wind up hurting her, hurting everybody, and so he'd pulled away, kept her, everyone, at arm's length. Sometimes every instinct still screamed at him that he needed to do that. But since they'd discovered the magic of the house and the Keys, and they'd faced all they'd faced, that was getting harder and harder to do. Which was good and bad. In some ways, they were as close as they used to be... more, maybe, because now they had secrets, including, a few big ones that were _just_ the two of them, nobody else.

But he worried. 

"Eventually, my grandfather decided there were too many ghosts here, he needed a smaller place where he wasn't reminded of how he screwed up. So he passed the house on to my dad, who moved in, with me, your grandma, and your dad," Duncan continued, throwing a smile around at the Locke children. "And, you know, when I was a kid, I didn't really think much about Uncle Tomas, other than that he was the guy who left all these cool old comics for me to look through, trace off of.... Nobody would talk much about him... it was like he was some big family secret. Even Dad, as far as I can remember, only mentioned him a few times... but I know he hoped his brother was still out there, that one day he'd come home to visit." 

"I don't get it though," Bode asked. He was sitting beside Duncan on the couch. "Why didn't anybody call for him? Or try to look for him?"

"I'm sure they did, Bode," Tyler said from his spot leaning against the wall. "But this was, like, the nineteen eighties. They didn't have the Internet, or phones you could carry. A lot more people must have went missing in those days. For all they knew, he could have been anywhere." Literally, almost, if Grandpa Locke thought his brother might have taken the Anywhere Key. But then again, he might not have even remembered it by then. Maybe the magic of growing up had robbed Grandpa Locke of some of the most important memories of his brother and sister, family that he, one way or another, lost for good. That thought bothered him a lot too.

"San Francisco," Duncan said suddenly, and then smiled self-consciously. "I mean, that's what I'd guessed. I know Dad hired a private investigator, once, to see if he could find him, and obviously he didn't, but... when I was a teenager I..." His eyes got that far away stare he sometimes got. "I actually don't remember why, but I know that I came to the conclusion that Tomas was gay, like me. That that's why my grandpa threw him out, he caught him with a boyfriend or something and he just couldn't accept it, and so Tomas left and never looked back."

"But... what's the big deal? So he's gay, so what?" Bode asked with perfect innocence. 

"People didn't think that way in the 1980s," Tyler pointed out. "Back then I think most gay people kept it a secret as much as possible."

"Practically the Dark Ages," Kinsey muttered. Mom gave her a bit of a glare, probably because it wasn't so far from the time she grew up, but she didn't seem to notice. "Like who want to be with is _anybody_ else's business."

"Things have gotten better," Duncan agreed. "But even when I was thinking of coming out I wasn't really sure how my family would react, whether people at school would reject me, but... the idea of Uncle Tomas, this relative I never met, being out and proud, always gave me courage, you know, that I wasn't a freak, that even if everybody did wind up rejecting me, I still could find a place where I could be accepted." His boyfriend Bryan put an arm around him, tugged him close as though to remind him that that wasn't necessary, and then Bode completed it with a tight hug that made him smile. "Except clearly I was dumb and didn't need any of that. Still, you could say was a key influence on me. Sorry." The pun, as bad as it was, made the Locke children smile.

"I think Tomas would have been honored that he was such an influence on you," Mom said. "And happy that the world's changed... that you don't have to keep secrets from his family like he did. That's no way to live."

Tyler's eyes found the floor, not wanting to look at his Mom. He agreed, of course, that it was a good thing that the world was getting better, but people always found secrets to keep, even from family. 

"Except _that_ Uncle Tomas was kind of all in my head. I mean, he might still have been gay. I remember... something convinced me of it." That glazed look in his eyes again. "But the happy life for him I imagined... it's like that doesn't exist anymore. Whatever dreams the real Tomas had, he never got to reach them. Maybe that's why this is affecting me, more than I thought it would. It's weird, you know?"

"It's like he died twice at once," Bode observed.

"But at least we finally brought him home," Mom said, and Duncan put on a smile again. "And even if we don't really know him, we can raise a toast." Her eyes flicked to Tyler again, and even though he hadn't said anything, or planned to, self-consciously specified, "A coffee toast."

"Does that mean I get coffee?" Bode asked, excitedly.

"A coffee or orange juice toast."

"I'm drinking Tea," Bryan said. 

Mom feigned exasperation, but she was smiling. "A general whatever-beverage-you-have toast... to Tomas Locke, may he rest in peace, and to his impact, whether intentional or not, on the lives of all of us. To family, and holding them close, and trusting them with your secrets... and to following your heart, because you never know when you might not get the chance." 

"Wow, grim, Mom," Kinsey said.

"It's not grim, it's _hopeful_! _Carpe Diem_!"

"Seems like an awful lot for one toast," Tyler complained absently, but he raised his cup. "But to Tomas." It was a nice sentiment, anyway. Tomas never really got the chance, and maybe, he suspected, it might be a curse that ran in the family. _Not everyone gets to_ carpe _their_ diem _._ And he tried not to obviously brood.

A few hours later, Tyler finally got to pull the tie off, in his room. That done, he immediately unbuttoned the top of his shirt, but it only made him feel physically better. His mind was still on the day, and only made worse when Bode came in. His little brother beat around the bush a little, talking about a recent video game, but finally asked, "So do you think Tomas might have known about the keys?"

He hated lying to Bode... but technically he wasn't. "Yeah. I think he did. He wasn't an adult, yet."

"So maybe he had some on him. But the police probably would have turned over his effects, wouldn't they?" Tyler wasn't actually sure if they would have. They didn't return the clothes, but then, given how damaged they were, there was no point. They did return the wallet. "I was thinking, maybe we should look around where he was found. In case they missed something. Do you think you can find out exactly where it was?"

"Probably." He could, in fact, walk Bode right there. Or he could save him the trouble. But he'd promised Kinsey to keep it a secret, so for now, he would. "But not today. Look, I'm kind of tired from all that shovelling. Can you go bother Kinsey for a while?"

Bode's shoulders sagged, and without much emotion, he said "Sure" as he listlessly walked out of the room. The knowledge that Bode was probably sulking like that specifically to make him feel guilty did not stop Tyler from feeling guilty, but part of being a big brother to a kid like Bode, and keeping your sanity, was to not let him think it did, so he just closed the door behind him. Then, reaching into his pocket, his hands closed on a key, and he decided to open another. He used his closet door, inserted the key into a hole which appeared, and turned it. The door opened on the Break Room, and Tyler stepped inside. 

The door had just closed behind him when he noticed that Kinsey was already there, lying on her stomach on the fold-out couch, which had been folded back in again. She was still in her dress, and one bare leg dangled in the air catching his attention for a moment before she looked back at him. He then saw a smile on her face before she turned away and said, casually, "Hey."

"Heads up, Bode's probably heading for your room next."

She looked back. "Did you close your door?"

"Yeah." Her door was closed too. They'd started thinking of it that way, his door, her door, his key, her key. They'd experimented a bit once the opportunity allowed. If both keys were used on the same door, from the outside, it locked both people out unless both keys were used again to open it. But otherwise, each individual key could open one entrance into the Break Room, and exit again into the place it was last used. That could be useful, if the doors were far apart, almost like a very limited Anywhere key. But right now, the doors just opened into rooms down the hall from each other so all it meant is that he and Kinsey could get into each other's room if they wanted too. And, since both of them were now _inside_ the Break Room...

"Then he'll still be on his way whenever we get out," Kinsey pointed out. Time was stopped outside, so she had all the time in the world to return to the comic she was reading. "I've been thinking..."

"Really?" Tyler walked over, slumped down in the beanbag chair. "Because it looks like you've been reading a comic."

"Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living," she said, and it sounded like a quote of something, but he couldn't place it. "No, seriously. I can't stop thinking about what Mom said."

"About not keeping secrets?"

"What? I mean, I guess?" she looked at him. "But it's not like we _can_ tell her any of this."

"Yeah, but..." he let out a breath. "I still don't feel right about keeping this from Bode. Lying to him. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't even know about the keys in the first place."

"I know. But let's at least make sure we've looked through everything in the room, first. I mean, for all we know Tomas stashed drugs in here. Last thing we want is Bode to prick himself on some 1980s heroin needle."

Again, it felt like an excuse to keep the room to herself, at least a little longer. Maybe she wouldn't even want Tyler to know about it if he hadn't found it with her. And again, he knew he was going to go along with it, but he asked, "You really think Great-Uncle Tomas was a heroin addict?" making his disbelief clear in his tone. 

"No," she admitted, although she looked like she was stopping to consider the idea, whether it might have explained him getting kicked out. Instead, she said, "But we don't know. He might have let friends use the room. And maybe there's even another key hidden in here, one too dangerous for Bode to stumble upon and try to use."

A fair enough point to get him to stop fighting on this, for now, especially because he really did want to keep this room just between the two of them... he just didn't want to have to feel guilty to do it. "So if it wasn't the secrets, what was it Mom said you can't stop thinking about?"

"Just... about Tomas... and how sad it was, he never got to follow his dreams." Her eyes met his again, and he thought, _Carpe diem. Seize the day._ "Do you think Duncan was right? About him being gay?"

He shrugged. "I guess it might explain why his dad threw him out at seventeen." It didn't explain the photo of the girl, but he might have gotten that all wrong, it might just have been his sister with the heart condition. Nor did it explain where the rage monster came from. But Duncan's theory certainly fit the evidence for why he might have disappeared and his father didn't look for him. "Not really thrilled to find out that our great-grandfather was a piece of shit, though."

"Well, you go back far enough, most people have horrible relatives. And we don't know what would have happened if Tomas returned. Maybe they would have made up, maybe his family would understand."

"Maybe. I don't think we'll ever know. Some secrets don't ever get uncovered."

"I found a letter."

His head snapped back in her direction. "What?"

Kinsey pulled out a sheet of paper, a secret she'd hidden between the pages of the comic. "Last night. I couldn't sleep so I decided to poke around in the Vault and... I found a letter in one of the boxes. I think Tomas was working on it, to send to... well, I guess it must have been to the guy his dad caught him with." Assuming that story was true... they were relying on Duncan's untrustworthy memories of what his father told him of whatever _his_ father's side of the story was... family history was worse than a game of broken telephone, sometimes.

A letter wasn't like that, it like this room, a direct link to the past. Tyler found himself interested despite himself. "What's it say?"

"You know, love letter stuff. But... whoever it was meant for, maybe we can find them. Let them know how he felt, at least. You know... Great-Uncle Tomas might not have been able to follow his dreams, but maybe we can at least finish any unfinished business he had."

Tyler had some doubts about whether they'd be able to do anything useful... it had been decades. And even if they could, was it right to be digging into somebody else's secrets? On the other hand, Tomas was gone, and whatever he was involved in was wrapped up with the keys and this magic room... so these were _family_ secrets now, and he couldn't deny his own curiosity. Maybe knowing more about the life Tomas had lost would make Tyler feel better. And it would be fun to work with Kinsey on something when there was no fear of danger. He got off his chair and moved to his sister's side, crouching by the crouch, looked at the letter over her shoulder. "It's worth a try..."


	7. A Cemetery At Night

Trying to solve a decades-old mystery was more frustrating than Kinsey had anticipated. 

The letter was vague... touching, passionate, speaking of an intense love Tomas wasn't ashamed of, yet afraid of the consequences for his lover and that he didn't want to ruin his life. But despite poring over it several times, sometimes with Tyler reading right over her shoulder, they couldn't pick out anything that identified who it was never sent to. Clearly it was intended for one person who already knew the sender, because it contained no names, and not even any firm details, aside from giving Kinsey the impression that the mystery man might be taller than Tomas--or bigger, at least--and only if the words about feeling safe in his strong arms wasn't just poetic. And that whoever it was knew about the keys, as Tomas expressed a fear that their love was on a timer, like the movie _Logan's Run_ , because sooner or later they'd lose their memories of the magic and he worried it might take their love away too. That was another detail, she supposed, that whoever the love was, he must be slightly older, because Tomas expected him to losing the memories first. Tomas wrote that he couldn't bear that, to look at his love and know that he didn't remember... and Kinsey could sympathize, her own heart almost broke imagining it, and reading the words where he questioned if maybe they shouldn't try so hard to be together if they'd just be torn apart soon anyway. That was about where the letter ended, and she hoped he reconsidered that, that it was _why_ the letter never got sent.

Knowing that the mystery man at one time knew about the keys wasn't much help, though, aside from making sure she had Tyler had spent a lot of time, in the timeless room of the Vault, searching for any more momentoes he might have left behind, something like a private photo of the two of them Tomas might have stashed away. They had no real luck with that, unfortunately. Nor did they find any additional keys in there.

Still, even though nobody in the family remembered Tomas, or his love affair, it was a small town, at least compared to Seattle, and some people who knew them were obviously still around. Kinsey volunteered her and Tyler to help host the small memorial service a few days after the funeral, and took the opportunity to ask some questions of those who showed up... but that turned out to be about as helpful and far less fun than searching through the Vault. Of the few of Tomas' classmates who showed up, none of them that Kinsey talked to, none of them remembered him dating anybody, certainly none presented themselves as the mystery love, and never provided even the slightest answer about what they thought happened when he disappeared, aside from one person who claimed Tomas was heavily into drugs. But she seemed like a gossip type, the kind of person who made things up because she couldn't bear not actually being the one who knew. With some of the others, there were moments she thought they _might_ have known more than they were saying, or were inexplicably uncomfortable with the topic, but that could have just been from being questioned by teenagers about something that happened decades ago.

Failure left the two of them disheartened, but one more than the other. On their way home, Kinsey suggested following up on one of the people who seemed like they might be hiding something, mainly because they left the service early, which seemed vaguely suspicious, and Tyler sighed. "Face it, Kinsey," he'd said. "We're not going to find it. It's been too long."

"So you're just giving up?"

He shrugged and then said the thing she didn't want to acknowledge. "You know what the letter said. Whoever it was... he might not even _remember_ being with Tomas. I mean... if we find a lead that's worth pursuing, I'm with you, but I just think maybe there's a better use for our time than digging... and anyway, I told Jackie I'd see her tonight."

Her mood deflated. "Right, Jackie." She could have suggested working in the Vault, pointed out that no matter how much time they spent on it Jackie wouldn't feel slighted, but in the end, he didn't want to do it and pushing him into it wasn't the way. And so Kinsey gave up too, at least mostly. She didn't want to let it go entirely, but Tyler had a point... she had other things going on, too. She was doing another movie project with the Savini Squad, and they were filming one of her scenes the next day, so it was probably a good idea to leave it on the backburner.

Despite that decision, Tomas and the letter must have been on her mind, because it was during that next day's scene that she had a sudden flash of inspiration. Zadie, in a small role as a detective, spoke some line about searching through surveillance footage to narrow down suspects, which got her thinking... obviously, no such footage still existed with Tomas in it, but the closest thing to documentation might... almost every school had yearbooks, and those might show anyone Tomas was particularly close with. So after filming she got the Squad to drop her off at the library... she didn't want anyone else outside the family, even Gabe, helping her. Though, that turned out to be anticlimactic, as when she asked at the desk they reminded her that old Matheson yearbooks, like those of many Massachusetts towns, were all scanned and available over the Internet. At least that side trip gave her the opportunity to try out one of the uses of the keys, which allowed her to enter the Vault through a random door and then leave again through the one in Tyler's closet... though she remembered to text first and ask if it was okay to come through. 

She didn't tell him about her idea, though, not wanting to be discouraged from it. 

Researching something on the Internet was one thing that she couldn't do in the Vault. So, that evening, she sat in her bedroom looking at her tablet, poring over the yearbooks for the years Tomas attended, looking for any sign of him. There wasn't very much. His sister Kaity, a year younger, was in it quite a bit, but Tomas was mostly seen in shots at a distance, so she inspected every group picture closely to see if he was in them and, if so, who he was hanging out with. Mostly they were grainy black and white pictures that just became dots if you zoomed in. 

A high-pitched voice startled her, made her flinch with surprise. "What are you doing?" Bode asked, suddenly beside her. "Looking at old school photos?" Her little brother's eyes widened. "Is that from when Dad lived here?"

Bode was smart but sometimes he had no sense of time, and years and changing fashion. The clothes, the hair, it should be clear to anybody that this was all a generation before Dad. "No, it's before his time..." She could tell by his face that he was disappointed, and she felt bad about getting his hopes up. Maybe that was what made her say, "I'm looking for pictures of Great-Uncle Tomas."

His interest returned, albeit a little less intense. "Oh? Why?"

She supposed it didn't hurt to tell him some of the story. It was her and Tyler's project but if he'd given up on it... "I'm trying to see if I can figure out who he was in love with. To show Uncle Duncan."

"Oh." He looked with her at the pictures for a few silent seconds, and then pointed out an idea that was obvious in retrospect, "You can always go ask Chamberlain Locke, he'd probably know."

That was how she found herself in front of the Ghost Door with Bode, a little later that night, after dinner and Mom had gone off for a 'coffee with a friend' (Kinsey knew that was to talk about her occasional urges to start drinking, which was way better than _actually_ drinking). In one hand, she held the Ghost Key, worried she was making a mistake, that she should have discussed this idea with Tyler before involving Bode. Not just because looking into Tomas' past was their project, but because the two of them, as older siblings, always had an understanding that they would work together to protect him, including from dangers he didn't fully appreciate. _Well, Tyler said he felt bad about hiding things from Bode... at least I'm involving him._

Bode paced in front of the spooky looking door with carved skeletons on it, explaining how they'd go about talking to an actual ghost. "Okay, we use the key to open this door. Then, when we walk through, we're ghosts." His face lit up. "It's pretty cool. We'll be able to fly around just by thinking about it."

" _I_ will, you mean," Kinsey said and inwardly winced again at the look of disappointment on her little brother's face. "I'm sorry, Bode, but I really need your help. We need somebody here to make sure nobody closes the door."

"We can get Tyler..."

He was just upstairs. It would be so easy to ask him... and yet, he gave up, she wanted to present him with answers, and yes, make him feel guilty for not having faith. Besides... "Tyler's too overprotective. He wouldn't let us do it at all."

Little Bode bounced with frustration, knowing he was getting a raw deal here. "But this was _my_ idea! Why can't _I_ go and _you_ play lookout? I'm the one who's met Chamberlain already."

"Because... you won't be able to remember everything I want to ask. _I_ don't even know all my questions yet, until I hear some of the answers. Besides we don't know for sure if there are other dangerous ghosts out there... what if Sam's out there or something?" But Bode was brave in the way younger kids could be, not because they lacked fear but just because they didn't completely realize how dangerous something could be. "Look, I promise I'll make it up to you. I'll... let you play with the Head Key for a while." With supervision, of course, but she didn't think he could in that much trouble. 

"Can I go in your head?" He had an excited, devilish grin on his face when he asked.

"No!" Who knew what he might find, poking around? "But you can go inside _yours_. Just... don't try and change anything. But you can revisit some memories, maybe you can even play around inside one of your crazy recurring dreams."

"The Star Wars Ice Cream Factory run by actual droids?" Yeah, that appealed to him. "Fine. I'll watch you."

She turned back to the door, shook out her limbs to get ready. "Okay."

"Wait!" He ran off to the nearest couch, came back with some cushions, started putting them down on the rug behind where Kinsey was standing. "Trust me, you're going to want this. If Tyler were here, he could catch you..." It was a fun idea, she could picture him freaking out the moment it happened and racing to get his arms under her in time, gently laying her on the floor. "But you're way too heavy for me." 

"Hey!" But she wasn't really offended, Bode was tiny, so she smiled. "And Bode... thanks."

The genuine gratitude at least seemed to have erase any lingering resentment over being left out. He smiled back at her, then said, "Don't stay out too long. If Mom comes back..." She wouldn't understand the keys, even if Bode tried to explain it. She might even unknowingly close the door, leave Kinsey trapped.

"I won't."

"And say 'hi' to Chamberlain for him. Tell him I'm sorry I haven't come visit, _somebody_ wouldn't let me use the keys."

"I'll tell him." She took a breath, turned the key, opened the door, and saw... an ordinary night. It just looked like any other exit to the outside of the house, albeit one they didn't use. She took a step, crossed the threshold, and immediately had the sensation that she dropped something, that some paper had fallen out of her pocket just at the edge of her perception, and heard a soft whump then looked back to see her own body collapsed on the cushions. Bode was watching her, not her body, but her... and yet... not watching her, at the same time. Like he was looking through her. _Because I'm invisible._

Not to herself, at least. Looking down, her hands looked pale and surrounded by glittery wisps, and she could kind of see through them, but they were definitely there, as was the rest of her body. That was comforting, it gave her a sense of reality.

Only a partial sense, though. Her feet weren't touching the ground, but instead hovering, and she realized she felt incredibly light, like a leaf on the wind. Bode had said they could fly, but she hadn't really thought what that would be like, or imagined it would be this easy. It was sort of like leaning with your whole body in the direction you want to go, any direction, with just slightly less force than it would take to actually move your muscles. But then she didn't have muscles, not really. Or any physical form at all. She tested that by _leaning_ back in the direction of the house... not through the door, that might send her back to her body, but through the wall above it, the area between the door and the balcony, and as she passed through solid matter everything went black. Just for a moment, but it made her instinctively move faster, and she must have propelled herself with enough force that she shot all the way through and came out the other side of the house. Another movement, and she was back inside, more slowly this time, but now zooming through the corridors of the house. _I suppose I should check it all out,_ she told herself. _Make sure there really are no_ other _ghosts hanging around._

She didn't find any. What she did find was her brother Tyler, in his room.

There, she stopped, hanging just above his bed, where he lay, shirtless, earbuds in, and looking at something on a tablet. _I should move on_ she thought, and stayed and watched him anyway. There was something exciting about this, just watching without someone knowing you're there... it wasn't right, she knew, but a part of her also said, _What's the harm?_ After all, Kinsey'd seen her brother's bare chest before, whenever they went swimming, and sometimes Tyler just didn't wear one around the house. She'd even touched him there, now and then, in casual sibling interactions, so obviously there was nothing inappropriate about looking now... or there _was,_ inherent in the spying, but it wasn't like she set out to spy on him, she just ghosted past him and stopped to look. Besides, she wasn't seeing anything Tyler would have hidden if he was aware of her presence. Yet... she'd never let her gaze linger before... not because she was afraid, but rather she was ultraconscious of what people might think, the wrong ideas they might get, and now that she didn't have to think about that, there was something about watching his chest rise and fall slowly that made her not want to look away. Until he shifted slightly, one hand dipping under his cover, and she decided to drift around so she could see what was on the tablet. It looked like an episode of one of the television shows he liked. _Not porn, anyway._

She was a little disappointed. Not at the lack of porn, she decided, but that what she'd supernaturally peeked in on her brother doing turned out to be so mundane. _But what did you expect, that you'd catch him writing secret thoughts down in a diary? Working on a song he never dared show anybody else?_ No, and she'd probably have to leave immediately if she did catch him at something, that _would_ count as a betrayal, but just watching him watch TV, that was only a _little_ bit wrong. Really, it was more of an opportunity to really _look_ at her brother, exercise her artist's eye in a way that might have made him uncomfortable if she'd done it in person, examine the shape of his soft lips, the way the light bounced off his eyes, even, yes, the exact shape of the musculature on his chest while he relaxed.

But she couldn't watch forever. Kinsey became a ghost for a reason, and this wasn't it. Still, out of curiosity, before she left, she tried speaking. "Hey, Tyler... Tyler..." His head jerked around, just a little, but he didn't look directly at her, instead his eyes went to the closet door. His movement must have just been a coincidence, rather than a reaction. No big surprise, based on what Bode had said, but she'd still thought there might be a possibility, that there was some kind of _connection_ that might have breached the veil. People sometimes saw ghosts without being them, after all. But he seemed no more aware of her than when she first entered. "I guess you can't hear me. But since you can't, I just wanted to say..." She shook her head, not sure what how she was going to finish, finding the thought of telling him something because he couldn't hear it silly regardless and told herself she should leave... then instead floated her insubstantial body over his, reached down and grazed his chest with one phantom finger.

 _That_ got a reaction, a sudden shiver as his pecs rippled, and as she drew back he turned on his side, pulled the covers over himself more, despite it being a warm night. Interesting... but best not to experiment any more. She dove through his wall, circled around, took a quick look back at her own body to ensure Bode was still looking over it, and then flew out into the night sky.

Kinsey was no stranger to flying, in dreams, at least, but this was no dream. It felt both similar and different... similar in that, just as in dreams, she didn't really have any feeling of acceleration, just pure movement, but there was a certain awareness and level of consistency her dreams lacked. The way the landscape remained constant no matter how many times she looked around, how she could focus as hard as she wanted on any particular detail without feeling like she would wake up. So, she allowed herself a few more moments of distraction from her purpose for being there, just circling the sky, enjoying the sensation of pure freedom, of being taller than the treetops, looking down on the world. Then, finally, she set her eyes on the clearing filled with what looked like, at her distance, a grid of white stones, and slowly descended towards it.

A cemetery at night is still a little creepy, even to someone who has no Fear... and, for that matter, even when you're a ghost. _Maybe especially then,_ Kinsey thought. It was probably why she'd dawdled so long before coming here. "Hello?" she called out, uncertainly. 

"Hello." The voice was mild, polite, utterly nonthreatening, but she still flinched when she heard it, whipped around to see the white-haired man standing there, in a suit, unnaturally still. "It's Kinsey, isn't it? You were at the internment."

"Yeah. And you must be Chamberlain Locke." _Holy shit, ghosts are real._ She almost had to laugh at her instinctive thought, because she _was_ one, at the moment. But a part of her always thought Bode was making this part up, even as she trusted him not to lie about something like this. Even while she believed in magic, she'd never really had the 'strong faith in ghosts' that Heathcliff had. To actually see one with your own eyes was more unsettling than she expected, for many reasons. But she swallowed it up. "Bode says hello... he's sorry he couldn't come back to visit you. That's... that's kind of our fault, really. We wouldn't let him."

"I understand. I saw him waving at my stone, though, when you were here the other day. Tell him I appreciated the gesture. And I appreciate what you did for my grandson Tomas..."

"Does this means he's... more at peace? Now that he's properly buried?"

"No, Tomas found his peace, and he moved on... but it's a kindness that he would have appreciated. And more, that you finished his unfinished business. He gave his life to lock that Rage away, but I know he worried someone would find the key to the Bunker and get hurt." _The Bunker_? She still preferred _'The Vault,'_ although Tomas' letter had used the phrase _'The Shelter'_ , which she suspected was his name for it... that also had a nice ring to it. "Where ever he is, he no longer worries about that, thanks to you."

That was another layer of why ghosts bothered her. It was eerie, talking to someone who knew things that only she and Tyler should know. She almost wanted to shiver, but there was no sensation of temperature and her ghostly form didn't even seem capable of simulating it. "So do you just watch everything that goes on around here?"

"Oh, no... I used to watch more, when I was newly dead, but now I spend a lot of time... just passing time. It's a lot like sleep. But sometimes something catches my attention, and I peek in. Like when you found Tomas' body, opened the door he locked, it... called to me. Because it involved my son."

"I thought you said Tomas was your grandson..."

"He was." 

"But..." Then she got it. "The Rage was your son."

"Part of him. One small fragment. The last piece left, as it turns out. That was part of the reason I stuck around so long."

"What happened to him? That he had that inside of him?"

"That's a big question." For the first time, Chamberlain Locke seemed to move his body. It was so fast it was almost like teleportation, except Kinsey could follow the movement, as he shifted a few yards over to a stone bench and sat down, or seemed like he did. She followed, floating slightly slower. "Rage doesn't turn into a monster over night, it grows bit by bit if you don't fight it, faster if it can convince you to feed it, by telling you you're doing the right thing. I'm sure I'm responsible for some of what my son became. But... I think it was mostly the war. My boy went away, and... I don't think what he faced was like the wars of my day, and coming home wasn't the same either. He went to serve to be a hero, but when he came back, he didn't feel like one. It left him troubled. Unpredictable. He could be the best father to his kids one minute, a monster the next, and he wouldn't hold himself back because he always thought he was right. When his wife passed, he got even worse. Started drinking a lot more, thinking it would ease his pain, and sometimes it did. Sometimes it did the opposite. He became volatile, and his children suffered more than anybody."

"So Tomas decided to use the Head Key and take his Rage out."

"Yes. A risky decision. Emotions brought out like that, from the keys... they can't ever really be killed, not as long as their source is still alive. Something you would be well-advised to remember, Kinsey."

That was too pointed a warning. "You know about what I did? To my Fear?" A slight nod. "Did you watch that, too?"

"Not directly. But I've seen it wandering around, and it tugs at my attention, at least when it's been on the Locke property... that's as far as I can roam. It's been in and out of the western woods lately."

"You're telling me to go find it. That I shouldn't have brought it out, made the mistake Tomas did, and I should put it back."

Chamberlain gave a weak smile. "I'm not telling you to do anything. Being dead has a way of making you less judgemental of the choices of others. I just thought you should know, in case you were hoping it might fade away on its own." She was. She'd never really voiced it out loud, but that was exactly what she'd hoped, that it might starve if removed from her long enough. "Your Fear, my son's Rage, they're parts of you, can never be killed. Only be locked away. And things locked away have a way of getting released, eventually, but... sometimes that's better than letting them free to begin with, or letting them control you. What Tomas did... I can't even call _that_ a mistake, even though it happened to end tragically. Because it freed my son, in his final years, from the Rage that was destroying him. I only wish Tomas hadn't died in the process. So much pain could have been avoided. Or maybe it would just mean more pain. Life's funny like that. You can't always predict."

"At least he would have had a chance to be happy. Without the Rage, maybe his father wouldn't be so prejudiced."

"Prejudiced?"

She paused, wondering if she was making a mistake here. Chamberlain said that he hadn't seen _everything_ , so maybe even _he_ didn't know. How do you tell a ghost that his grandson was gay? "I... found a letter. I know about what happened, why he was kicked out."

"Oh." The ghost's hands went to his knees, sliding along the not-really-there fabric of the suit. "Then you know about the great forbidden love." He didn't seem bothered or upset, just mildly embarassed. Which Kinsey supposed was pretty progressive for a ghost who died in the middle of the last century. But then maybe it was a ghost thing... she hadn't seen much emotion from him at all during their whole conversation. It was almost like talking to an animatronic robot from the Hall of Presidents, or maybe one of those magical portraits in those fantasy books.

"Some. You know, it's not quite so forbidden anymore."

"Really?" And he actually smiled more genuinely this time, getting the faintest blush of life. "Has the world changed that much? I'd like to think so. But it was different back then. My son could never accept it. I don't think _I_ could have, if I were in his shoes. In death, I like to think he's come around, as I have, to understand how precious true love is, no matter what unexpected form it takes, but in life? Once he knew what they were doing, he would have done anything to stop it... he still would have believed that was what he had to do, Rage or no Rage."

Disappointing, but she supposed it made sense. Not having Fear didn't fundamentally change any of her opinions, so why should a lack of Rage change prejudices? But there was still a missing piece of the puzzle. "The only thing I haven't figured out yet, is... who he was so in love with?" 

Chamberlain turned his face back to her suddenly, and another micro-emotion of surprise, with widened eyes. "Then I guess you don't _really_ know at all."

"I mean, yeah... that's why I came to you. To put the pieces together. I thought, maybe we could find them, give them Tomas' last letter." With some editing, probably, to remove mention of the keys. "Give Tomas some... closure." Or maybe she was just insanely curious herself, and wanted to present Tyler with the resolution to a mystery he gave up on, that they could have, _should_ have solved together.

"There is no need. Their story is already closed."

"But..."

"One of the things about being dead, Kinsey, is that you start to lose the instinct to defend secrets from the living. You rely on time and lack of interest to hide most things for you, and the more of that that passes, the less it feels like whatever secrets you've locked away actually matter. So if you really wish to know, I'll tell you. But I still think you might be better off not knowing any more than this... they were reunited in death. They were happy, when they moved on, but it's not a happy story... the cost of their happiness was pain for those left behind."

Well, _that_ sounded ominous. But now her curiosity was piqued even more. And something more, deep down there was a rising sensation of triumph, of satisfaction, like a part of her already knew the answer and the rest of her just hadn't listened. Still wasn't ready to listen, until she heard it out loud. "I want to know," she said. "Who was Tomas in love with?"

"His sister, Kaity Locke."


	8. Things We Were Not Meant To Know

Tyler had gotten used to using his magic key to enter the Break Room and finding his sister Kinsey already there. Or, if not that, the two of them entering at almost the same time, either by agreement or because some instinct had drawn them to it in unison. It was almost creepy. Like twin telepathy, except for the fact that they weren't actually twins. Sometimes he wondered if they were closer, in some ways. He'd literally been inside her head, after all, and not just that... when her Fear had attacked him that first time, in her mindscape, it drew blood... not much, but a little, and it stood to reason that a few drops of that must have remained behind after he left. Perhaps that had forged some kind of connection, that he left a piece of himself inside her she'd never be rid of.

That thought occurred before, now and then, but he always pushed it--and whatever associated feelings it dragged along--away, as swiftly as it formed, to some distant corner of his mind, tried to lock it away again with the snap appraisal of _ridiculous_. The more logical explanation was that, as siblings, they'd just known each other long enough to predict each other's habits, to come up with similar ideas at the same time. And, in this particular case, Kinsey was more enamored with the Break Room than he was. It was only natural that he often found her there.

Which made it all the more unusual to find the room empty, to stand in it for long stretches and not have Kinsey come in the other door. It wasn't the same without her there.

Literally, this was true. Because without her in this magical space, without the key she held, time was still progressing in the world outside, which meant it was hardly a Break Room, somewhere he could escape when he needed a breather from whatever responsibilities were piled upon him. Except Kinsey herself, of course, since she carried a whole bunch of responsibilities just for being his sister. With the outside world locked away, though, most of them didn't seem so pressing, and if it was a choice between the rest of the world and Kinsey, he'd choose Kinsey. Or, rather, he'd choose the world... in terms of which he'd rather have a break from, anyway.

But life didn't always offer that choice, and lately it seemed like Kinsey _had_ been giving him a break from her, too. Before they found these paired keys, it wouldn't have seemed that odd... maybe not even unusual enough to notice. They each had their own interests, their own social circle, and sometimes either or both of them got busy and anything more than normal family interactions--family meals, a ride to school, passing in the halls--would fall by the wayside for a while. It was only now, when they could literally carve time out of nothing--and they'd been consequently been spending a lot more of it together, just hanging out--that it stood out by contrast. 

It made Tyler feel... _something_ , anyway, an unease he couldn't put a name to, even though he wasn't sure it was intentional. 

If it _was_ intentional, it was probably his fault. The distance between them seemed to start when he went out with Jackie instead of wanting to continue the project of looking into Tomas' history. _Their_ project, really, and of course it wasn't so much that he went out with his girlfriend--his sister getting bothered by that would be... silly--but rather that he must have sounded like he was giving up on the idea entirely. And sure, he was frustrated with their lack of progress, and a part of him did wonder if maybe the fact that Tomas was so secretive about his relationship was a sign that they just weren't meant to find out, but that wasn't what he meant. He just needed a little break... the last thing he wanted was to discourage her.

Kinsey still hadn't shown up in the Break Room, so he paced around the edges of the space, as though looking for a clue in some corner of the room they'd missed, that he could present to his sister to reignite her interest. It was probably hopeless... they'd already searched through what felt like every inch of the room, looking for useful keys but mainly additional letters, photographs, or anything else that might point to Tomas' secret love. It was unlikely he'd suddenly spot one from a distance. Nor did he really have time to get too in-depth, with the clock ticking on the outside world. Tyler was actually meeting Jackie again soon, he'd promised to give her a ride for some charity errands, so unless Kinsey popped in through her door soon, he'd have to leave for that. Not that he didn't want to, of course. Still, he could afford a minute or two, and he stopped in front of the bookshelf, thinking back to a memory of his sister pulling each book out of its spot for a moment, just long enough to check to see if something might have been hidden behind. Nothing ever was... but they hadn't really looked through all the books themselves. They hadn't yet had enough time. And right now there especially wasn't any, not enough to do an intense search, but maybe if he grabbed one, he might get lucky, find some secret message. Besides, Jackie had warned him that he might be bored and waiting. It couldn't hurt to have a book.

Tyler's fingers danced over the spines and he selected one at random, the name of the author tripping something in his head, lines of text from the founding of their town streaming through his brain automatically... but there was something else familiar, beyond that.

"Trippy," he muttered to himself upon seeing the cover. There was a picture of some weird creature with a snake's head for a tail and a weird hulking lower body with eyes and tentacles, and a sort of human-like upper body, but not _quite_ human. Clearly it was some alien entity, maybe _The Dunwich Horror_ of the title, or maybe something from the _and others_ in the subtitle. " _It's Evil Beyond Exorcism--And The Shock Experience Of Your Life by America's Master of the Macabre._ " That was another reason why the author's name was familiar... he was supposedly one of the influences on _Stranger Things_.

Tyler recalled his theory about that show, that people sometimes encountered the supernatural, forget when they grew up, and changed it into fiction. If that was true, it would have had to have been interpreted and reinterpreted... but maybe this was closer to the original source, and why Tomas collected it. Or maybe it was just a cheap diversion. But he could use a cheap diversion, too.

He stuffed the paperback into a pocket and went towards his door, waited until the count of ten just in case Kinsey showed up, and then left for the real world, closing the door.

_As real world responsibilities go,_ Tyler thought an hour later, _driving your cute girlfriend around isn't so bad._ Even if it was only helping her with her errands. Yet his mind kept going back to Kinsey. She was probably doing something with her Savini Squad again. Which was good, he didn't have to worry about her in a group. Much. Still, it was one of the reasons he kept both a phone and his Break Room key with him at all times. It was a great comfort knowing that, if she needed him, she could text and he could be there in practically an instant, as long as each of them could thrust their key into a nearby door. 

"Thank you so much for doing this," Jackie said as he pulled up to the small print shop. "I specifically asked not to be put in charge of getting the signs this year, and what do they do?" A sigh of frustration escaped her, which she then covered with a bright smile. "Anyway, I'll probably be about half an hour. You're sure you're okay waiting? You can go get an ice cream or something, and I can text you when I'm done. Or, you could come in with me but..."

She'd already warned him that she'd be super focused on getting the task done, and it wasn't the kind of job he could lighten the load with, so she wouldn't have time to goof around. Jackie Vega in full charity-organizational mode was impressive, but also a little scary. "I'm good. I brought a book." He held up the paperback.

Jackie peered at the cover, squinting in confusion, or maybe surprise. "H.P. Lovecraft?" she asked. "Where'd you get that?"

In a room he probably _should_ be able to share with his girlfriend, but Kinsey had asked him not to, and so he held back. Sometimes he wondered why, since _she_ told outside people about the magic keys before he did. And the Break Room would make an ideal makeout spot. Tomas Locke must have used it, to keep his secret romance, and Tyler could certainly appreciate the benefits of such an arrangement. The mystical room was accessible any time, full of comfortable spots, had its own shower, and whatever you did in there would take no time at all. At least, if you were with somebody who had the other key. Still, even without that feature, he could uncomfortably imagine his sister deciding on a whim to invite her unctuous boyfriend, while meanwhile he kept his key in his shoe so Jackie wouldn't ask about it. If, after all that, Tyler walked into the Break Room one day and found Kinsey and Gabe awkwardly separating, he was going to be pissed... not to mention if they were doing more. That was an image he definitely didn't want in his head... even picturing them making out rose an anger in him he had to cover with a smile, to look back at the book cover where a less threatening monster jeered out at him. "Just found it, looked interesting. You a fan?"

"No... I mean, I've never read any of his stuff, but of course I've heard of it. He wrote a lot about, you know, formless dread, Things We Were Not Meant To Know. That sort of thing." Like, probably, what Kinsey was doing with Gabe. "You know, this town was almost named Lovecraft?"

That bit of interesting trivia broke Tyler out of whatever dark thoughts were starting to gather. "Wait, really?" Most of his knowledge of Matheson came from a book he'd placed in his head with the Head Key, and though the name Lovecraft was included in the early history section, as one of the first families to settle the area, whatever story Jackie knew wasn't part of the history... or at least the one included in that particular book.

"Not the same guy, but maybe he was, like, a distant relative? Richard Winfield Lovecraft, he helped build up the town, one of the big industrialists and traders of the era, super respected." That much Tyler knew. "At least until his son went crazy, because of a spurned love affair, wound up setting a fire to the new church just to interrupt a wedding. A few people died. He was hanged for it, but his father tried to blame it on witches and demons and... well, nobody wanted the town named after that."

"...and so they named it after British Naval Admiral Howard Matheson instead," he finished, from the official story in his book. Matheson didn't even live in the town, but enough of the citizens felt he protected them and it must have seemed like honoring him was better than the father of a murderer. Though given it was _this_ town, with the portal hidden in the cliffs, maybe witches and demons _were_ involved in whatever happened to Lovecraft. And maybe the some of the tales filtered down to the more famous Lovecraft. Or maybe not. Maybe it really was just jealousy that turned the guy into a monster... Tyler knew _he'd_ felt rage he couldn't control before, rage that almost made him beat a guy's face in, rage he'd just felt an echo of moments ago. Tyler looked back speculatively at the monster on the cover, forcing his thoughts away. _Of course that was different._

Jackie was still talking. "Good thing, too, because everyone would have thought we named ourselves after the writer guy, and he was kind of super racist." Well, that was disappointing. Talk about things you were better off not knowing. She must have seen him frown. "I mean, that doesn't mean you can't read it and enjoy it. The stories are super influential... in fact, a lot of people have made specifically _anti_ -racist takes that build on his ideas."

Tyler forced a half-hearted chuckle, more an exhalation, then said, "I mean, I'm glad the town's named Matheson, but you've got to admit, it would be pretty fun to be able to tell people we went to Lovecraft Academy."

She grinned. "Oh my god, could you imagine? It'd be even worse with the people who _hadn't_ heard of him. It'd sound like we were in some kind of... advanced sex program."

He hadn't been really thinking that, but he smirked as he imagined along. "Advanced? Are you saying right now I'm a little basic in my love craft?" 

"Mmm, let's see..." And she put her hand on his shirt and pulled him towards her and they shared a brief kiss on the lips. "No, no complaints there." 

Nor on his end. Kissing Jackie was fun. Still a pretty low-key kind of fun, but fun. And another kind of break, Tyler didn't have to think about Kinsey and whatever she was doing. Heart starting to race, he leaned in again, closing his eyes.

They locked lips one more time, this time with slightly more passion behind it, but then Jackie pushed away with a guilty smile. "I've really got to get this done." 

"Sure," he said, and honestly, he wasn't that disappointed. "Go on, do what you need to do. I've got something to distract me." He held up the book again, full of monsters and forbidden knowledge and totally safe. 

In the end, the stories were something of a let-down. Monsters a-plenty, things man was not meant to know, sure, but also a lot of purple prose, hard-to-pronounce names, and using the excuse of things being too horrible for mortal comprehension to avoid actually describing the monsters with those names. No secret notes in the margins from Tomas, or meaningful underlined passages. Nor, despite some alluring titles like "In The Vault" or "The Whisperer in Darkness" or "The Shadow Out of Time" had Tyler so far been able to find secret references to powerful keys or any of the other types of magic he already knew about. But the few stories he managed to completely get through served their purpose as a distraction at least, filling time until someone he wanted to spend time with wasn't busy anymore. 

He didn't get to spend much time with Jackie, though. Which didn't bother him. They had some plans to see each other again later that night anyway for something more fun. This was just helping her out. So they talked a little more in the car before he dropped her back off home, and because he knew she still had a lot to do, his own little contribution to charity was making up an excuse so she didn't have to ask him to stay with her while she worked. After a quick kiss goodbye, Tyler drove home. 

There, he was about to go into his room and make a quick stop in the Break Room to drop the book back on the shelf, but as he walked up the stairs, he spotted his little brother Bode sliding on the floor in his socks. "Hey, Tyler. What are you up to?"

"Nothing." He still couldn't tell Bode about the Break Room, not without talking to Kinsey first, and at least 'nothing' was less of a lie than if he made up something. "Is Kinsey home?"

"I haven't seen her all day," Bode said. "Not since breakfast, anyway." Tyler nodded, was about to move on, but then Bode said, "So... if you're not doing anything, I was thinking, do you want to go check out where they found Tomas' body? See if we can hear any keys whispering?" He got ready to hold up the book, claim he was going to read, but Bode must have sensed the excuse and saved him from a lie. "You did promise."

Tyler was reasonably sure he _hadn't_ actually promised, that Bode was pulling a classic little brother trick, but he wasn't a hundred percent certain, and either way it was something Bode was going to be pestering him about, until he either spilled the beans or they went to satisfy his curiosity. _Might as well get it over with._ With a deep breath, he said, "Fine. Get your shoes on." 

They didn't need to go very far from the house, but Tyler had to pretend to not be a hundred percent sure where they were going, as though he hadn't seen the spot before but instead only vaguely knew where it all happened, but before too long he was back by the hillside with the fallen tree and thinking about Tomas Locke again. The marking tape left behind by the cops and coroner, tire tracks and discarded coffee cups made it easy to point it out to Bode and let him go listen for a key.

It wasn't out of the question that he'd find one, but Tyler was mostly worried that his little brother would hear whispering that would lead directly to the one hidden in his shoe, the one he didn't want to leave behind, just in case. So far, none of them had heard whisperings from a key that hadn't been lost, but it wasn't like it was a rule written in a manual somewhere, so to cover his nervousness while Bode poked around, Tyler leaned against a tree went back to the book.

"I don't think there's anything," Bode said finally, and when Tyler looked over at him, his brother was walking with shoulders slumped and a dejected look on his face.

He almost wanted to let his brother in on the secret just to cheer him up. Instead, he said, "Cops are pretty thorough. If there was something they probably would have found it."

"Yeah." He sidled up beside Tyler, looked at the book, read out loud. "'The Dunwich Horror'?"

"They're short stories," Tyler explained. "Monsters and stuff. Nothing nearly as scary as what we've fought." Well, some might have been, if he had to face them, but the overwrought descriptions didn't really form good images in his mind. Anticipating Bode might ask him, he said, "Not really even very good. Listen to how this one starts. He flipped back a few pages. "' _The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents._ ' And he goes on for a whole paragraphs like this, about how there's Things We Were Not Meant To Know that would drive people mad." Or maybe things a person _already_ knows that they just don't know they know... except he'd figured they _did_ on some level, they just try to deny and bury it. Like Mom did whenever she saw magic. _Okay, maybe Lovecraft actually does know a bit about what he's talking about. Probably an accident._ He snapped the book closed. "Ready to go back?"

They started walking back to the house. "I guess. I'm disappointed I didn't find anything."

"Me too, Bode."

"You barely even looked."

Fair. He stopped, facing Bode, and said, "Look, I just knew that if a key was going to whisper to anybody, it'd whisper to you first." That made Bode smile with pride, and they resumed their pace. "Maybe I should have looked harder, though. Even if he didn't have a key, maybe there was something else, like..." _What the hell_ , he thought. If he couldn't tell Bode everything, he could at least tell him this. "...some sign of who Great Uncle Tomas was in love with."

"But didn't Kinsey already find that out?"

Tyler stopped in his tracks. "What?"

Bode turned back to him, now aware that what he'd revealed so casually was actually a big deal somehow, and seemingly struggling a bit with how much he should say, if any of it might betray Kinsey's confidence. But in the end, he must have decided on honesty. "She used the Ghost Key, asked Chamberlain Locke. I thought you knew. You guys share everything, usually _I'm_ the one you don't tell things to."

On some level, Tyler knew he probably owed Bode an apology for that, or maybe a justification, but right now all he could think of was one question. "So who was it?"

His little brother shrugged. "She wouldn't tell me, all she said was that it wasn't like what she thought, and she needed some time to _process_ it." He made air-quotes with his fingers. "But I figured she'd have told _you_." 

Tyler would have thought the same, and wasn't sure whether to be angry or hurt. After all the time they spent trying to figure this out, and she'd sat on it. It wasn't like she didn't have a chance, either. It would only have taken a few seconds passing in the hallway, either to reveal the answer or to duck into their secret place where they could take as long as they wanted. Unless she didn't want to.

Kinsey still wasn't home when they got back, and he went back and forth over composing her a text, asking to meet, or outright asking the answer, but whatever he came up with went unsent. As bothered as he was, Tyler didn't want to interrupt whatever she was doing with her friends, or Gabe. At least mostly, he didn't. He could wait. 

As it turned out, he didn't have to. He retrieved the key from his shoe and inserted it into his closet door once again, opening into the Break Room, just to put the book back where he found it. By the time he got to the shelf, he heard Kinsey's door open, watched her emerge through it from something that looked like the inside of a bathroom he didn't recognize. She closed the door behind her, and flinched with surprise as she realized Tyler was already there. Like she was caught in something, almost, but then she recovered. "Oh, hey. Just wanted to get a snack." She casually sauntered in the direction of the cupboards. Not a hair seemed to be out of place... or at least, no more than the way her hair often had a few strands that seemed perfectly out of place, like she didn't overly worry about it, which actually made her more attractive. Her lips were darker, too, more sensual looking, suggesting this she was on a date, or at least a situation she wanted to look good, but he didn't notice any smudges on it that might make him wonder what she was doing, and there was no sign of her pretty blouse askew, nothing to indicate she might be embarrassed by whatever she'd just been doing, where ever she was and _who_ ever she was with before the room. 

That put Tyler a little at ease, though he wasn't sure why, because surely if she wasn't uncomfortable about that, it must be about him. "I'm watching a cheesy movie with the Savini Squad. _Doom_. You know, like the game you play sometimes? It's actually... not as bad as I thought." Yup, definitely something was up... she was talking fast, about things he hadn't asked about which... well, sometimes she did that anyway, it could be really cute if she was just excited... but this time he sensed it was a cover, to avoid talking about something else. "But all they had were salty stuff, and I was craving sweet, so I figured I'd sneak in here and see if there were any 40 year old fruit pies left."

In other situations, he might have let it slide, but he was too curious, and now that they were both in the room, neither of them had to be in a rush to get anywhere. She wouldn't even miss any of her movie if they had this conversation now. 

"So... were you ever planning on telling me?"

Tyler watched her swallow, but her hand was still reaching for the cupboard with the snacks. "About stealing fruit pies?" No, she knew.

"Bode told me that you talked to Chamberlain Locke. About Tomas."

"Oh. That." Her hand dropped, and she turned to face him, although her eyes seemed to be focused on his chest more than his face. "I didn't think you'd care to know."

"Why? Because I got frustrated when we weren't getting anywhere?" He didn't like the implication of her playing with the Ghost Key, either. It was traumatic enough when he found Bode lying on the ground seemingly dead, if it was Kinsey... but that could be a discussion for another day. "You wanted to punish me for giving up?"

"No!" And he actually believed her, which made him feel guilty about the accusation. "It's just... it wasn't what we thought. I wasn't sure what to tell you."

Tyler made sure his voice was softer. "How about just the truth?" She crossed the den, moved to sit down on the couch... couch-bed, but it was mostly in couch form since they escaped the room. Once seated, she patted the seat beside her, inviting him to join, so he did, his mind racing trying to guess what about a forty-year-old mystery his sister felt she couldn't say.

Kinsey took a breath, looking at him, then away. "The truth is... complicated. Chamberlain warned me that I might not want to know. So I'm going to warn you, too."

He chuckled with mirth he didn't really feel. "Now you sound like one of these old horror books," he said. Specifically, the one he'd never actually put back on his shelf. The paperback sat beside him, cradled gently in his left hand, reminding him of the stories where somebody encountered a terrible truth and then went mad. But that couldn't really happen, could it? "Whatever it is... you can tell me, Kins. We started this together, we should finish it together."

"Okay, but just..." She shook her head, deciding instead of another warning, she'd better get right to it. "So, you remember the letter I found?"

He followed her gaze to the desk where they'd been pouring over it. "Right. Tomas wrote it to his boyfriend." _Older_ boyfriend, Tyler remembered. _Could that be it? A teacher or something?_ But he instantly discarded the idea, because he was worried his love would forget the magic when he got old enough.

"No," Kinsey said, looking at him only out of the side of her eye. "Tomas didn't write that letter. His sister Kaity did."

"That..." Okay, so that meant most of what they'd pieced together as clues didn't apply to Tomas. So maybe it could have been an adult, and Tomas wasn't in a romantic love affair he felt he had to keep secret from a world that wasn't ready for it, but instead was abused. Except... "She was the one with the forbidden romance?" After all, the letter had been pretty clear about that.

"Sort of, yeah." She took a deep breath. "Tyler... she wrote the letter... _to_ Tomas."

It felt like the hairs on the back of Tyler's neck had begun to stand on end. "No, but that would mean..." 

"Yeah. They were together."

The formless dread the book he'd been bouncing through all day had been trying so hard to provoke was now upon him in force. He looked to the door, instinctively wanting to escape the weirdness of the conversation, and not even sure why he had that reaction, then afraid the reaction _itself_ would look weird. "Um... how very _Game of Thrones._." It was the first thing to pop into his mind. His sister gave him a weak smile. "So his father caught them together and..." It made a certain amount of dark sense... no wonder Tomas got thrown out. He should have known better. Tyler ran his palms up on his legs and knees, nervously rubbing. "You're right, I think I'd rather not have known."

Kinsey turned away from him, which he could understand. He didn't want to look her in the eye right now either. "Yeah, I figured."

"I mean, how does someone even... decide to do that?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Tyler saw Kinsey shrugging. "I don't think it was a _decision_ , exactly, Tyler. Some people fall in love with the wrong people sometimes. I mean, people at the memorial said they always spent a lot of time together. And Chamberlain told me they'd been through a lot of stuff, you know, their whole lives. Traumatic stuff."

 _So what?_ We _spend a lot of time together_ he thought. It was a good thing for siblings to want to spend time together, wasn't it? And _they'd_ been through trauma. That was not enough to... I mean, sure he had the occasional random dream or weird fucked-up thought, but it didn't _mean_ anything. There had to be more than that. Something fundamentally wrong with Tomas.

His sister continued, "The Rage we fought was his father's. He kicked Tomas out of the house, sent Kaity to a boarding school to separate them. But they still wanted to be together." 

_Together._ The word kept trying to stick in his mind and then falling away as he tried to picture it. Could it really be as mutual as she made it sound? He thought back on the letter, now picturing the words in Kaity's voice (or what he imagined her voice sounded like, anyway)... speaking of doomed love, all while calling this room their Shelter. She may not have been forced into it, but that wasn't an excuse. Tomas, at least, should have known better. _You're supposed to protect your sister, not..._ Tyler stood up suddenly, realizing that the couch he and Kinsey were sitting on was probably used by Tomas and Kaity when they.... _No, I don't want that in my head._ Instead he paced around the room, then came to a rest leaning against a counter top, where he didn't have to look at Kinsey.

"Tomas hoped that if he could take out his dad's Rage, it might... fix things, somehow."

"And we know how that turned out." 

"Not entirely. There's, um... more." She was silent until he finally turned back to her. "After Tomas was gone, Kaity came back to Keyhouse. You remember how Uncle Duncan said she died, suddenly, young?" He nodded, once again dreading what coming without knowing exactly what it was. "She was found in front of the Ghost Door."

"Jesus, she killed herself?"

"I don't know for sure. Chamberlain thinks it was an accident. Tomas lingered, after his death, waiting for her, and Kaity must have guessed that, she used the key to visit him, many times. All it might have taken is one mistake..." That's the way it always was, with so many things. It might just take one mistake to lose everything. "Either way, I guess even death couldn't keep them apart. If you think about it, it's..."

"Yeah," Tyler agreed quickly, gaze dropping. "Pretty twisted." If she wasn't going to say that, it had to be something similar. 

Her agreement was almost a whisper. "Yeah. That's about what I was going to say."

"Clearly we can't tell Uncle Dunc about this." Better he live with whatever story he made up in his head. "Or Bode." That was a bigger problem, since he _might_ ask. "At least not the truth." He hated lying, but for this... yeah, both of them were going to have to just pretend everything was normal.

"Right. We'll think of something."

He needed to think of something himself, a way to get out of the room quickly, back to normalcy, so he didn't say or do something awkward and uncomfortable. Put on a mask, pretend everything was normal, because it _was_ , right? This news was weird, shocking, but not something he'd dwell on, because what kind of person would? Really, Tyler decided, the only thing he was worried about was that somehow Kinsey might _think_ he was messed up in the same way as Tomas, give her a reason to distrust him. So the best thing to do was to consider the topic closed. _Just push it from your mind._ His eyes fell on the Lovecraft book, left behind on the couch, and focused on the only quote he clearly remembered. _The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents._ That helped him keep his face impassive, or at least he hoped it did, he returned to the couch, conscious of Kinsey's eyes on him. He'd just pretend he came into the room _for_ the book and now that he had it, there was nothing else in the room that interested him. And one step beyond. "Anyway, I need to grab something to eat and get ready... going to see Jackie tonight." _I've got a nice, normal girlfriend. Nothing to worry about, Kinsey._

"Sure."

"Enjoy the rest of the movie, though." And as casually as he could, he went through his door and closed it behind him, exhaling deeply before removing the key. For several seconds, Tyler stared at it, lying in his hand, thinking about going to see Jackie. _Maybe it's not such a good idea to take it with me this time._ There was something a bit creepy and obsessive of always having to keep it on him, even on a date. After today's revelations, a little distance was probably a good thing. He wasn't going to give it up entirely, but just, pull away, just in case. Use the room when there was an actual need instead of treating it as some shelter from the outside world. 

He didn't want to, he could accept that much, but you don't always do the thing you want, you do what's right, what's best for everybody. And for all that his protectiveness loved the idea of being able to get to Kinsey in a few seconds, if he had to, a greater protectiveness told him he needed to put some space between them.

Tyler opened one of his drawers and put the key, and the book, under some clothes. _Good enough,_ he hoped. Some things get locked away, others just get shoved somewhere dark in the hopes nobody finds it, because nobody's looking.


End file.
